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2006 Egyptian film From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Yacoubian Building (Arabic: عمارة يعقوبيان, transliterated: ʿImārat Yaʿqūbīān or Omaret Yakobean) is a 2006 Egyptian film based on the novel of the same title by author Alaa Al Aswany.[2] It has been reported to be the highest-budgeted film in the history of Egyptian cinema.
| The Yacoubian Building | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Marwan Hamed |
| Screenplay by | Wahid Hamed |
| Based on | The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany |
| Produced by | Imad Adeeb |
| Starring | Adel Emam Nour El-Sherif Hend Sabri Yousra |
| Cinematography | Sameh Selim |
| Edited by | Khaled Marei |
| Music by | Khaled Hammad |
| Distributed by | Good News Group (In Egypt) Arab Co for Cinema Production & Distribution (Worldwide distributor) |
Release date |
|
Running time | 165 minutes |
| Country | Egypt |
| Language | Arabic |
| Budget | $3.5 million[1] |
Like the novel ostensibly set in 1990 at about the time of the first Gulf War, the film is a scathing portrayal of modern Egyptian society since the coup d'état of 1952. The setting is downtown Cairo, with the titular apartment building (which actually exists) serving as both a metaphor for contemporary Egypt and a unifying location in which most of the primary characters either live or work and in which much of the action takes place.
The actual namesake Yacoubian 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 Basha Street, by both native Cairenes and the novel's characters). As in the novel, the film's version of the building is "in the high classical European style, the balconies decorated with Greek faces carved in stone."
After premiering at the Berlin Film Festival in 2006, the film opened in Egypt in June.
The Yacoubian Building was Egypt's official submission to the 79th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film.
The film opens with a luff tracing the building's history, as wealthy expatriate and Egyptian residents give way, after the 1952 coup that overthrew King Farouk and eventually resulted in the installation of Gamal Abdel Nasser as President of Egypt, to new families, and as the rooftop storage rooms are converted into living space for lower-class families. The rooftop community, effectively a slum neighborhood, is symbolic of the urbanization of Egypt and of the burgeoning population growth in its large cities in recent decades, especially among the poor and working classes. In the faded apartments of the main floors and on the building's teeming roof, the film's principal characters are introduced:
The stories of each of the primary characters are intertwined, at times colliding or converging with one another. Together, they give a biting condemnation of a nation that has squandered its promise and which has been forced to compromise its own principles, resulting in a corrupt and undemocratic political system dominated by a single party (the fictitious "Patriotic Party", a thinly-veiled version of Egypt's National Democratic Party). The unlikely pairing of the elderly roué and the disillusioned young girl that ends the film provides a closing grace note that can be seen as a ray of hope against the death and unhappiness that has befallen the other characters.
 | This section needs to be updated. (January 2020) |
Having received the Adults Only seal from the board of censors in Egypt, the film debuted on June 25 to box office returns of over LE 6,000,000 in its first week, according to Al Ahram daily, giving it the record for the biggest debut ever for a theatrical film in Egypt. It went on to gross LE 20 million during its initial theatrical run.[3]
After the success of the film in 2006, a television series under the same name of Yacoubian Building was launched in 2007 with a major difference – the gay character in the film and the source novel was excised from the TV series adaptation of the novel because of its controversial nature.
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