Hatem, a gay editor, seduces and corrupts a young man from the sticks. The Yacoubian Building's treatment of homosexuality is taboo-breaking, particularly for contemporary mainstream Arab literature. Jump to: navigation, search This is a list of buildings that are examples of Art Deco. It follows the stories of several characters who live in the Yacoubian Building, a once-luxurious building that houses rich residents inside and a shanty town on its roof, creating a clear divide between the building’s rich and poor. At the dawn of the 21st century, the Yacoubian still has charm and a reputation for elegance, but is beginning to show clear signs of decay, and the rooftop laundry facilities now double as flats for the less fortunate. 16 of 24 people found this review helpful. Published in Arabic in 2002 and in an English translation in 2004, the book, ostensibly set in 1990 at about the time of the first Gulf War, is a roman à clef and scathing portrayal of modern Egyptian society since the Revolution of 1952. En route to building a diversified portfolio of innovative, revenue-generating products, we offer our partners the opportunity to evaluate and selectively invest in individual solutions. Built … The Yacoubian Building: A Noveland millions of other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Many enjoy vices of all sorts, or behavior that society might consider immoral or scandalous, whether alcohol, homosexuality, or drugs. Was this review helpful to you? An international bestseller, 'The Yacoubian Building' is a mesmerising and controversial novel that is at once an impassioned celebration and a ruthless dissection of a society dominated by bribery and corruption. Use the HTML below. Hatem, a gay editor, seduces and corrupts a young man from the sticks. But much of it works quite well too, especially the acting, which is pretty good across the board, the crisp pacing and the driving musical score.A big bold movie that bites off more than it can chew but provides a solid few hours of entertainment nonetheless.Grade: B+. Bothayna, poor and beautiful, supports her family, wanting to do so with dignity intact. Her former fiancé, Taha, the janitor's son, humiliated by the police, turns to fundamentalism. A family man frustrated by the bureaucracies of the Egyptian public system as well as difficulties of life finds himself inadvertently accused of terrorism and decides to maintain this role... See full summary », Ali Abd-El-Zaher is a member of an Isalmic radical group which has been launching attacks against the government and the society under the orders of the spiritual leader Brother Saif. Gone are the crème de la crème of Egyptian society who lived in the building during the city's heydays of the thirties and forties. Zika, an aging libertine, feuds with his sister. However, in their quest for success, they're forced to resort to illegal ... See full summary ». By all accounts, the frank candour about corrupt government, homosexuality and the prostitution of Egyptian citizens (of all types and at all levels of society) have been greeted with quite an uproar in this film's country of origin. Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. The sweep and size of the film (not to mention its length) may fool people into thinking it's a more important picture than it actually is, when really it's not much more than one big soapy melodrama that manages to stay mostly entertaining over the course of its three hours.There's a lot going on in this film, and you may find you have your work cut for you just following the basics of the plot. A businessman who loves his daughter very much, refuses every man who proposes for her in order not to leave him. Both share central, overarching themes such as debauchery, desperation, and unstable political situations. Khaled Diab, in an article entitled "Cultural rainbows", explores this aspect of the novel, and how this can help change popular attitudes to homosexuality in the Arab world. Ali ... See full summary », When the lives of Mahmoud, a Muslim Sheikh (Omar Sharif) and Boulos, a Christian Priest (Adel Imam) are threatened by religious extremists on both sides, the Egyptian government inducts ... See full summary », A story of Saeid and Marzouq two friends who made it through poverty and aspire to become successful businessmen. Al Aswany writes of its fictional counterpart as having been designed "in the high classical European style, the balconies decorated with Greek faces carved in stone, the columns, steps, and corridors all of natural marble.". The Yacoubian Building Adel Imam Hend Sabry Mohamed Imam (2006) An aging playboy (Adel Imam), a wealthy businessman, a newspaper editor are some of the colorful residents of a building in Cairo, Egypt. After the revolution in 1952, which overthrew King Farouk and gave power to Gamal Abdel Nasser, many of the rich foreigners, as well as native landowners and businessmen, who had lived at the Yacoubian fled the country. Which Country Will Win the 2018 FIFA World Cup? The actual namesake 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 Pasha Street, by both native Cairenes and the novel's characters), although its true appearance differs from its description in the book. Pius Haj Azzam takes a second wife, in secret, to satisfy sexual drive within religious bounds. Looking for more? Hidden Lives. Pius Haj Azzam takes a second wife, in secret, to satisfy sexual drive within religious bounds. The Yacoubian Building Themes. It's a noble effort on the part of the film-makers, and I can understand them wanting to pack in as much punch as they can, but the film tries to do too much, and the plot feels like several different agendas unsuccessfully unified into a coherent whole.Much of "The Yacoubian Building" is no less ham-fisted than your typical Hollywood film, not the least of which are the scenes that explain outright the film's central metaphor (the Yacoubian building itself as a representation of Egyptian society). Two brothers, Copts, one a tailor and one Zika's factotum, connive for property. The Yacoubian Building holds all that Egypt was and has become over the 75 years since its namesake was built on one of downtown Cairo's main boulevards. Zika, an aging libertine, feuds with his sister. Two brothers, Copts, one a tailor and one Zika's factotum, connive for property. Nestled along downtown Cairo’s busy Talat Haarb Street, the Yacoubian building is easy to miss. Tragicomic, passionate, shockingly frank in its sexuality, and brimming with an extraordinary, embracing human compassion, The Yacoubian Building is a … All live in the Yacoubian Building, a once-elegant temple of Art Deco splendor slowly decaying in the smog and hubbub of downtown Cairo, Egypt. Storyline Cairo: a 70-year-old building of once-luxury flats with tenements on the roof. The book focuses mainly on the residents of the Yacoubian building, a once-chic but now rundown edifice that acts as a metaphor for Cairo's own deterioration. Ellie Cohen MPP has been CEO of Point Blue Conservation Science, based in California, since 1999. Of course, it's tough as an American, and therefore one used to experiencing art that throws critical darts at my country's beliefs and institutions, to fully understand how controversial this film (and the book on which it is based) has been in Egypt. On the roof of the ten-story building are fifty small rooms (one for each apartment), no more than two meters by two meters in area, which were originally used as storage areas and not as living quarters for human beings, but after wealthy residents began moving from downtown Cairo to suburbs such as Medinet Nasr and Mohandessin in the 1970s, the rooms were gradually taken over by overwhelmingly poor migrants from the Egyptian countryside, arriving in Cairo in the hopes of finding employment. Meditations on corruption, fundamentalism, prostitution, homosexuality, and drugs in central Cairo. The Yacoubian Building is fast-moving and action-packed, with drama in every scene and shifts between the different strands used to provide tension. the novels Midaq Alley and The Yacoubian Building, we are shown the ongoing, daily struggles of the working-poor in both colonial and postcolonial Egypt. See the fabulous presenters and gracious winners at this year's Oscars. Introduction. 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