The Yacoubian Building

I am still reeling from the dizzying marvel of the grand storytelling of this movie. No movie can be like a book. So I discount all who compare it to a book.

I cared so much for these people, their stories are topical yet universal. The anguishes, the struggles, the personal demons, stay with me...as reminders of the pain of all mankind.

"We are living in the age of deformity" said one of the characters... and so mankind still continues, forming, deforming, renewing itself. When will it end? These are the questions which this film asks of us all. But is the world deformed or - is it we who are deformed? While this movie will not answer such an unanswerable question out loud. We know the truth. But we seldomly face it...Some of us learn our lessons, some do not. But our pasts always come back to haunt us...

I know I've not said anything about the acting, nor the unmatched technical gifts of this movie...but they are what crown this magnificent achievement from the first delicate frame until it's bleak uncompromising ending...

The cinematography, editing, and music must be praised to the rooftops!

***** I recommend this movie to those who are not afraid to see the truth and see it told marvelously.

...

What I like most about this movie is that it opens a window into an unknown world for me, that of relations between men an women in modern Egypt, and it does so in a style that is at the same time sumptuous an unfamiliar. People do things you wouldn't expect, despite the slightly heavy-handed handling of emotions. There are areas where the movie is not perfect: it is so highly pessimistic and denounces the greed and selfishness of Egyptian men with so much vigor that it appears somewhat simplistic. It does tend to ramble a bit. But the power and the humor of the movie (it is quite funny, despite being tragic) transcends all that and makes those minor faults. I understand the director is very young, so he will have ample time to overcome and transcend these youthful imperfections. I didn't like Slumdog Millionaire because it told me everything about India that I already knew: it feels like a package tour where you are shown the sites you expect to see, and are whisked from one location to another. For a western viewer, Omaret yakobean is like a journey where you land at the airport and are immediately carried away by the atmosphere, the culture shock, the bustling streets, the misunderstandings, from which you emerge with challenged assumptions and a wider view of the world.

"They" say it's overly faithful to the bestselling novel by Alaa Al Aswany which I have not read. . For Egypt, Yacoubian Building is the most expensive film ever (quotes vary). Director Hamid was 28 when he made it and is the son of the screenwriter who did the adaptation. The film is an ambitious and promising if under-edited piece. Perhaps it ought to have been in parts like Marco Tullio Giordana's The Best of Youth/La meglio gioventù, to which it has been compared. But instead it's a somewhat sprawling 172 minutes and feels at times like a smashed-together telenovela.

Hollywood Reporter says the film may "offer a revealing window into the secular world of a modern Islamic country -- its indulgence in alcohol, sexual promiscuity, political corruption and personal betrayals. From such 'deformities, the movie argues, Islamic fundamentalism gains its most passionate adherents." But we can do better than this crude analysis. Moroccan-born ,western educated novelist Laila Lalani points out the book (and consequently the movie) is full of prejudices against gays, resembles the old "large-scale melodramas" produced by Egypt's "huge film industry," with their "young idealists, desirable ingénues, old predators, and so on," and is crudely moralistic -- with almost every character forced to make choices that "ultimately result in either their downfall or redemption." It's also full of heavy-handed emotional manipulation, cliff-hangers, and so on. Alaa Al Aswany is no Naguib Mahfouz. Aside from the prejudice against gays, we're told that mixed marriages produce confused children, that all women love sex enormously, and so on. It's important to realize that however engaging the film is and notable the actors are in the Egyptian film world, it's made out of dross, not gold.

The titular Armenian-owned, Twenties Yacoubian Building in the once elegant, restricted central zone of the city "became home to Cairo's rich and powerful when it opened," Lalani writes. After the revolution, however, "storage sheds on the rooftop were rented out to poor families--a sort of sky-high slum." This allows for a story about the building's residents that spans society. The action is set in the 1990's. And the basic panorama goes something like this:

In the foreground is Zaki Bey El Dessouki, or "Zaki Pasha" (Adel Imam), a superannuated playboy kicked out of the family apartment by his mean, half-crazy sister. He may seem seedy, but he's the house aristocrat. Fanous (Ahmed Rateb) is his faithful manservant. Dawlat (Essad Younis) is his nutty, vindictive sister, who has always resented his fun loving ways and not is out to get him. Hatem Rasheed (Khaled El Sawy) is a gay editor who takes a good-looking soldier Abd Raboh (Bassem Samra) .from the country as his lover. Rasheed isn't mincing, but he reflects an Egyptian discomfort with gayness; still, he's seen three-dimensionally. He likes dark Nubian men because they remind him an early experience with a family servant. The film's treatment of the sexual aspect of Hatem's relationship to the soldier feels like something made in the 1950's. In general sex is a burden for the people in this movie, either a risky temptation or an ordeal. It gets nasty, and then the camera shrinks away.

Haj Assam (Nour El Sheriff) is a self-made millionaire (through a chain of stores selling modestly-priced women's clothing) with political ambitious. wants to get into the People's Assembly (Majlis al Sha'ab) for access to power. He takes a penniless young widow with a young son, Soad (Somaya el Khashab), as a second wife and forces her to have an abortion. As Lalani puts it, Assam "is the nouveau riche to Zaki' Bey's aristocrat." The brothers Abaskharon and Malaak (Ahmed Bedire) are Coptic Christians who save every penny they make, by legal and illegal means, in order to finally afford a room on the roof.

On the roof are Taha (Mohamed Imam)and Buthayna (Hind Sabry). Taha is the son of a bawab. A bawab is a doorkeeper, more like a concierge or a super in New York rather than "janitor" as it's translated. With such a lowly father, Taha is turned down by the police academy as not socially adequate to become an officer, and adopts a "plan B," to major in political science, which leads him to sympathy with the university religions fanatics and he eventually becomes an Islamic fundamentalist. His girlfriend Buthayna leaves him when he becomes religious and eventually she goes to work for Zaki, who's reformed and treats her well. She's previously been sexually harassed in every job she's had -- as we're shown in a lurid scene. Perhaps she feels too defiled to be worthy of one so innocent and decent as Taha, and she seems hardened A reader has pointed out that she is much poorer in the book than here. Laila Lalani says, "Egypt's young men are easy preys to religious extremism while the country's young women are victims of sexual exploitation." Taha is imprisoned and given Abu Ghraib treatment that de-islamicizes him. To get revenge, he trains as a terrorist -- a chain of events that looks frighteningly up-to-date.

The film has little details any Cairo downtown resident will know -- like Zaki yelling angrily because another resident has left the door of the antique elevator open on their floor so no one else can use it. Though this isn't Naguib Mahfouz, like him it attempts to draw a richly representative picture of a whole society. It's a rather sad picture with its disapproval of the present and nostalgia for the past.. And again, despite the three or six million dollars spent, some exterior sound is awful, the wrong kind of lens is used to pan up and down the city buildings, and some of the Islamicists' beards look pasted on. But with all that's going on, it holds your attention.

Shown as part of the San Francisco International Film Festival 2007. Earlier in the year one of the Film Comments Selects series at Lincoln Center, New York.

That's what I felt after watching that movie, it's really close to the society and the public's pulse, some overestimation is there but through comic frame, you'll enjoy watching that movie Marwan Hamed is not an ordinary director, he is one of the best around. i have never seen such a movie that tackles every issue in the Egyption society so honestly. it is a pure masterpiece and if i was running the Oscars then that movie will sure receive one. A movie so honest and directed, it is designed for all classes describing the social corruption in todays society - not only in Egypt but all around the world. if you miss this movie then you will spend your entire life regretting it so i advice every Arabic and non-Arabic speaker to watch the masterpiece and enjoy the art of this marvelous director whom i have a great respect for. two thumps up

This excellent black drama is a must see despite its nearly three-hour running time, the movie is one of the most watchable and enjoyable pieces of art in Egyptian Cinema.

I didn't read the story before seeing that controversial movie, so I had low expectations. But despite that, got hooked as early as the quality intro that takes you smoothly through an enjoyable ride to discover the background behind that nostalgic building in central Cairo through a Sepia short clip.

The film is an artistic black drama which is full of cultural and political symbolism if you read carefully between the lines, my interpretation is that the building is a clear symbol of the country itself and how it transformed dramatically from the nostalgic early days of the 40s till the present day, shedding light on the price that the Egyptian society had to pay during that rough trip, and how the society has clear double standards that everyone is trying to ignore.

Every side story evolves in a different direction and involves controversial characters who are linked only by the same building (society) in someway or the other, the different stories are interweaves in an artistic way to dramatise different controversial issues and taboos from adultery, political corruption, homosexuality to Islamic fundamentalism.

The movie has a general sad feel around it especially for anyone who lived in Egypt as it touches on the deterioration and many negative issues that are becoming more and more the norm in most Egyptian society levels that was once a conservative and religious society. It is strong wakeup call to those who love their country to stop burying their heads in the sand when it comes to double standards that's affecting everyone in the society making everyone feel inferior to the country. The story will make you think deeply about how and why a country like Egypt could end up where it is today.

The cinematography, steady cams, crane camera movement is brilliant, the smooth cuts and soft transitions boosts the romantic dimension of the storyline. As expected, the music score by Khaled Hammad is expressive, romantic and adds a lot of depth to many scenes. The tempo of the movie is just right, giving enough time for actors to express their feelings through longer than usual shots that will never leave you bored. Action scenes are also very well done.

A must see piece of art for anyone who is living or used to live in Egypt.