“The Yacoubian Building” is ‘General Hospital’ set in Egypt”
- Ron Wilkinson     MONSTERSANDCRITICS.COM

“It is as sprawling as the land of the pyramids and as universal as vaudeville.”
. Ron Wilkinson    MONSTERSANDCRITICS.COM

“revolutionary in the context of Egyptian cinema”
- Deborah Young   VARIETY

"One of the foreign language hits of the year"
- Jack Foley   INDIE LONDON

"nothing short of groundbreaking"
- Lael Loewenstein, LOS ANGELES TIMES

The Yacoubian Building in Cairo is still an eye-catching construction. This film portrays episodes in the lives of peoples living here. One of them is the aristocratic Zaki with a weakness for women. One of his neighbours, Bothayna, is 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. When his dream of attending the police academy is thwarted he decides to join a religious group. Among the building’s other inhabitants are Fanous and Malak living in a corrugated iron hut on the roof. One other tenant is a journalist named Hatem. He falls in love with a soldier.