Director
Marwan Hamed
Cast list
Zaki El Dessouki: Adel Emam
Mohammad Azzam: Nour El-Sherif
Christine: Yousra
Dawlat El Dessouky: Isaad Younis
Malaak: Ahmed Bedier
Bothayna: Hend Sabry
Hatem Rachid: Khaled El Sawy
Kamal El Fouly: Khaled Saleh
Fanous: Ahmed Rateb
Soda: Somaya El Khashab
Abd Raboh: Bassem Samma
Taha El Shazly: Mohamed Imam
Fekry Abdel Shaheed: Youssef Dawoud
Credits
Based on the novel, The Yacoubian Building (2002) by Alaa Al Aswany.
Language: Arabic.
Release date: June 21, 2006.
Running time: 165 minutes.
Budget: $3.5 Million. Considered to be the highest-budgeted film in the history of Egyptian cinema. The film debuted to box office returns of over LE 6,000,000 in its first week, giving it the record for the biggest debut ever for a theatrical film in Egypt. Cumulative profits of LE 20 million during its initial theatrical run, making it one of the most profitable films in Egyptian cinematic history.
Synopsis
Woven through a series of interconnected plots situated around the Yacoubian Building; a run down apartment building set in the middle of Cairo, the film centres around the established power relations and hierarchies within the inhabitance of the city. Locating both the wealthy and the poor, The Youcabian Building becomes the locus of varying and intersecting struggles of power, from corruption to sexual harassment, to homosexuality, religion and drugs. The film portrays the rampant social inequalities and persistent strife to establish oneself in the Egyptian social.
Reviews
Daniels, Kate. “Film Review: The Yacoubian Building (2006).” Global Media and Communication, vol. 4, no. 1, 2008, pp. 107–111., doi:10.1177/1742766507086855.
Street, Steven. "The Yacoubian Building (review)." The Missouri Review, vol. 30 no. 1, 2007, pp. 143-144. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/mis.2007.0090
Academic Articles
Gardaz, Michel (2016) “The Path of Jihad in the Yacoubian Building,” Journal of Religion & Film: Vol. 13 : Iss. 1 , Article 4. Available at: https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/jrf/vol13/iss1/4
Tartoussieh, Karim. “The Yacoubian Building: A Slice of Pre-January 25 Egyptian Society?”Cinema Journal, vol. 52, no. 1, 2012, pp. 156–159., doi:10.1353/cj.2012.0102
Submission by Alicia Lapeña-Barry