Yacoubian Building, The

Aroview: A downtown apartment building is the main setting for this lively, ambitious cross-section of Egyptian life: a melting pot of social, political and racial entanglements, viewed through the eyes of its interconnected residents.

Something of a first for Egyptian cinema, touching on themes previously considered taboo within relatively chaste Egyptian society (inc. adultery and homosexuality), this sprawling soap opera toes the moral line in a few areas (especially one character’s homosexual ‘deviance’), but manages to absorb attention throughout, exploring and tying together a variety of topical issues, and finding a good deal of pathos and intrigue through its spectrum of downtrodden and double-crossing characters. Based on the popular novel by Alaa Al Aswany.