The Yacoubian Building

The Yacoubian Building in Cairo is still an eye-catching construction. Built in 1934 and named after the leader of the Armenian community, it was long regarded as the last word in comfort and elegance. Loosely based on a highly popular novel by Egyptian writer Alaa’ Al Aswani, this film portrays episodes in the lives of the people who live here. One of the building’s inhabitants is the aristocratic Zaki El Dessouki. A play-boy for whom women are still his great weakness, the elderly man now holds his trysts in cheap bars. One of his assignations is his neighbour, Bothayna, a young girl from a poor background. Obliged to mess around with the owner of the shop where she works in order to feed her family, she even has to sacrifice the love of her life, Taha El Shazly, the son of the door-man at the Yacoubian Building, who ends their relationship on the spot.