Pashas and Pistachios in The Yacoubian Building

Lucky for us, the Tribeca Film Festival is an incredible showcase for world cinema, screening films from all over the globe, large and small. One of the most highly touted of the group was The Yacoubian Building, an Egyptian film directed by Marwan Hamed, who, incidentally snared top honors in the Festival's narrative category. The film, based on the best-selling Egyptian novel of the same name, opens in Cairo on June 21 and represents the 28-year-old Hamed's directorial debut.

The three-hour epic tells the story of a group of people who live in the famous Yacoubian Building in downtown Cairo. Built in 1937 as an oasis for the upper class, the tenants portrayed in the film have fallen on hard times as has the building which exists in a state of faded grandeur. The film explores the tension between the social classes in Cairo, the roots of Islamic terrorism, political corruption, the attitudes of an essentially patriarchal culture, and cultural taboos such as adultery and homosexuality. It also confronts the context, attitudes, and factors that can conspire to make people turn to terrorism.

The main characters in the film include Zaki Pasha (played by Adel Imam, billed as Egypt's greatest comedic actor) as an aging playboy; a French singer and his former lover Christine (played by the enchanting Youssra, a star of world cinema); and Bosnaina (Hind Sabry), a confused girl who lives on the roof of the building. The rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Egypt is represented via two plotlines--the doorman's son Taha (Mohamed Imam) turns to religious fanaticism after becoming frustrated in his attempts to move up in society, while Haj Azzam (Nour El Sherif), who rises from shoeshine boy to business tycoon, is exposed as a fraud.

While The Village Voice described the film as a "massive Arabic soap opera," I don't actually think that's fair. The film is a poetic meditation on contemporary Egyptian society in all its florid complexity. It's presented with flair and verve, a sense of foreboding, and pathos. The characters in the film are complicated, humorous, and essentially likable; they are riddled with fears and insecurities and strive to improve their situations. We see class, sex, and power issues at work in every frame of the film: Taha applies to the police academy but is immediately rejected after the screening committee learns his father is a porter; a man looks to secretly take a second wife because he no longer receives sex from his first one and is humiliated by his overwhelming desires; Zaki is thrown out of his family apartment by his sister who says he's tarnished the family's good name with his man-about-town routine; and the gay editor of a French newspaper seduces a married man, one of the more colorful taboos illustrated in the film.

I attended a press conference on the film at the opening of the Festival and heard from the producer, director, actors, and the novel's author. Festival Director Peter Scarlet took pains to note just how courageous an act bringing the novel to the screen really was. For example, actors Youssra and Imam are both on terrorist lists and were prior to 9/11 for their activism both on and off the set. Alaa Al Aswany, the author of the best-selling novel on which the movie is based, is also on the lists, and it's likely that Hamed's name appears for openly tackling gay issues and other taboo themes.

"This is a human story, this is a mirror of our life and we say 'please look to us by our self-portrait,'" said the film's producer Emad Adeeb. "There is a lot of misinformation about us." Adeeb, referencing United 93 within the context of the issues raised by The Yacoubian Building said, "This [United 93] talks about how a very painful time took place. We sympathize 100 percent with the movie. We were victimized too, our reputation as Arabs. Our point of view is [to show] how terror is manufactured inside this building. The manufacturing of terrorism. We hate this, wee are totally against it."

Elaborating on the questions and themes raised by The Yacoubian Building, Hamed noted that the film shows how a terrorist is created amid conditions of poverty, lack of education, stagnation, and class warfare. "It's not the religion [Islam] that created the terrorist." Novelist Al Aswany, who's also a practicing dentist in the Yacoubian Building, agreed: "The problem is not with the religion, but with the interpretation of the religion. We are suffering as much as you're suffering from an aggressive and closed religious interpretation."

For his part, Adeeb is hopeful that the film won't be censored. If that turns out to be the case, "it's a huge step toward freedom of _expression." He believes the film is a chance for all sides to understand how a terrorist is created and for all parties to build toward mutual understanding and awareness.

"Sometimes you do need to be shocked to wake up. The film is shocking," said Youssra.

The Yacoubian Building is a rich brew and one that should be imbibed with relish. But I am just as curious about the book which has been translated into four languages. Meanwhile, when the film gets global distribution and turns up in your town, by all means go see it.