The Yacoubian Building

Film: The Yacoubian Building
Rating: 4 out of 5
Release Year: 9999
Length: 162 min.
Genre: Drama
Main Cast: Adel Emam (Zaki), Nour El-Sherif (Mohammad), Youssra (Christine), Essad Youniss (Dawlat), Ahmad Bedair (Malaak), Hind Sabri (Bothayna), Muhammad Emam (Taha),
Director:Imad Adeeb

Synopsis: This film takes place in Cairo, Egypt and focuses on The Yacoubian Building. This film is inspired by the novel The Yacoubian Building published in the early 2000's. This building is home to many individuals who are carry very different lives. The purpose of this film was to show different scenarios and different people all from one place. It covers controversial topics such as: Politics, prostitution, corruption, fundamentalism, homosexuality, and drugs.

Review: 81% of people who rated this film on Rotten Tomatoes really enjoyed it. There was a comment that stood out to me and it said, "The Yacoubian Building is a flawed, yet ultimately illuminating film worth seeing"(Knight). It's flawed because it doesn't worry about showing a perfect life with perfect people. More so, it shows reality and how far from perfect that is. Nonetheless, despite the fact that this film is about 3 hours long the film seemed rushed. There could have been more detail in between what was going on. I tried connecting with each character but it was very hard because they would appear again way later in the film. This movie is just so interesting because I had never seen so many topics put out in one film. It's amazing.

I really enjoyed that they covered many topics that still to this day many of us have either experienced or know of people who have. For Example, Hatim Rasheed (Khaled El Sawy) is in a meeting for his next newspaper ad. and they talk about putting something about homosexuality. Hatim immediately dismisses the recommendation by simply saying no one is interested in that, what even is homosexuality? Even though he is homesexual himself. Furthermore, another very interesting topic is sexual harassment. Sexual harassment in the workplace for women. Bouthayna (Hind Sabri) is faced with this at her job and decides to quit. Then she finds another job but when she is telling her mother and friend about her situation they don't act offended. Instead they recommend her to be "smart" and as long as she's well behaved she'll be okay. We see this now-a-days where this topic isn't taken as serious as it should. I really enjoyed her character because she was very upfront and real with her beliefs. And it's not easy to just quit a job when you need the money to support your family so it shows a lot of character of her to have done what she did.