The Yacoubian Building
NPR today has broadcasted an interview with and Egyptian movie Director Marwan Hamed about his new movie "The Yacoubian Building" (Imarat Yacoubian in arabic). The movie will be relased early next year but according to Mr. Hamed, his feature will be "very controversial" because it uncovers many of the gloomy aspects of the egyptian society and politics.
Based on a novel by Alaa Al-Aswani, an egyptian dentist, the story is set in downtown Cairo during the 1990s and it brims with Mahfouzian characters and themes of corruption, thuggery and inequity. From one character to another, Al-Aswani exposes the reader to the two worlds embodied in the Yacoubian building: the haves who inhabit its spacious duplex apartments and the have-nots who create another society on its roof in the little storage rooms originally designed to house each apartment’s excess foodstuffs and belongings. Yet, Al-Aswani is particularly concerned with sexual exploitation in its myriad manifestations, brilliantly driving home the point that the poor have not only been robbed of their dreams but of their very bodily integrity. Yet, sex and intimacy are also a balm and refuge from the daily indignities and cramped life conditions that the poor endure, and one of the most moving passages in the novel sensitively speaks to this dimension.
The novel as its author said will draw thousands of readers, but the movie will draw even more attention.
Based on a novel by Alaa Al-Aswani, an egyptian dentist, the story is set in downtown Cairo during the 1990s and it brims with Mahfouzian characters and themes of corruption, thuggery and inequity. From one character to another, Al-Aswani exposes the reader to the two worlds embodied in the Yacoubian building: the haves who inhabit its spacious duplex apartments and the have-nots who create another society on its roof in the little storage rooms originally designed to house each apartment’s excess foodstuffs and belongings. Yet, Al-Aswani is particularly concerned with sexual exploitation in its myriad manifestations, brilliantly driving home the point that the poor have not only been robbed of their dreams but of their very bodily integrity. Yet, sex and intimacy are also a balm and refuge from the daily indignities and cramped life conditions that the poor endure, and one of the most moving passages in the novel sensitively speaks to this dimension.
The novel as its author said will draw thousands of readers, but the movie will draw even more attention.
posted by Hannibal | 8:42 PM
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