The Yacoubian Building (film)

Background

Like the novel ostensibly set in 1990 at about the time of the first Gulf War, the film is a scathing portrayal of modern Egyptian society since the coup d'état of 1952. The setting is downtown Cairo, with the titular apartment building (which actually exists) serving as both a metaphor for contemporary Egypt and a unifying location in which most of the primary characters either live or work and in which much of the action takes place.

The actual namesake Yacoubian building, constructed in the Art Deco style, still stands in downtown Cairo at the address given in the novel: 34 Talaat Harb Street (referred to by its old name, Suleiman Basha Street, by both native Cairenes and the novel's characters). As in the novel, the film's version of the building is "in the high classical European style, the balconies decorated with Greek faces carved in stone..."

After premiering at the Berlin Film Festival in 2006, the film opened in Egypt in June.

The Yacoubian Building was Egypt's official submission to the 79th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film.

Plot summary

The film opens with a luff tracing the building's history, as wealthy expatriate and Egyptian residents give way, after the 1952 coup that overthrew King Farouk and eventually resulted in the installation of Gamal Abdel Nasser as President of Egypt, to new families, and as the rooftop storage rooms are converted into living space for lower-class families. The rooftop community, effectively a slum neighborhood, is symbolic of the urbanization of Egypt and of the burgeoning population growth in its large cities in recent decades, especially among the poor and working classes. In the faded apartments of the main floors and on the building's teeming roof, the films's principal characters are introduced:

The stories of each of the primary characters are intertwined, at times colliding or converging with one another. Together, they give a biting condemnation of a nation that has squandered its promise and which has been forced to compromise its own principles, resulting in a corrupt and undemocratic political system dominated by a single party (the fictitious "Patriotic Party", a thinly-veiled version of Egypt's National Democratic Party). The unlikely pairing of the elderly roué and the disillusioned young girl that ends the film provides a closing grace note that can be seen as a ray of hope against the death and unhappiness that has befallen the other characters.

Cast

Commercial and critical reception

Having received the Adults Only seal from the board of censors in Egypt, the film debuted on June 25 to box office returns of over LE 6,000,000 in its first week, according to Al Ahram daily, giving it the record for the biggest debut ever for a theatrical film in Egypt. It went on to gross LE 20 million during its initial theatrical run. The film is expected to bring in more profits when it is released on home video and to TV.

Some of Egypt's lawmakers took to the floor of the People's Assembly to protest against the film for its depiction of a gay romance. Sadly, the main gay character is portrayed as a predator, who gets men drunk while showing them straight porn in order to seduce them. He was also molested by a very big black man in his youth which might explain why he is gay. That kind of gay stereotype in this move is old as the hills but mostly disappeared from American cinema 25-50 years ago. But Hatim, the gay character, seems to get what he deserved in the end, which is another stereotype that was once the norm in American and European cinema.

TV series

After the success of the film in 2006, a television series under the same name Yacoubian Building was launched in 2007 with the mentioning of the character of the gay homosexual in the film original being excised from the TV series adaptation of the novel because of its controversial nature.