The Yacoubian Building: Egyptian "Blockbuster" Meets Western Audiences

Reviewer: James van Maanen
Rating (out of 5): **½ (up it a star if you're particularly interested in Egyptian culture)

What to make of the sensational (in themes and provenance, if not style and substance) Egyptian movie blockbuster The Yacoubian Building? Several things, actually, but let’s start with provenance and themes. Based on a groundbreaking, hugely popular Egyptian novel by Alaa' Al-Aswany that dealt with unusual subjects (for Egypt, at the time: it was published in 2002) such as homosexuality, adultery, drugs, corruption-in-high-places and the decline of Egyptian society, the novel seemed to have dragged Egyptian literary culture into the 20th Century. Of course, since much of the world is now well into the 21st, this is part of the problem that Westerners may have with the book--and its filmed version, which debuted around much of the world in 2006. (Here in NYC, it played at the '06 Tribeca Film Fest, but otherwise had not seen much U.S. action until its DVD release this year via Strand Releasing.)

Adapted for the screen by Wahid Hamid and directed (his first attempt at a full-length film) by Marwan Hamed, the movie is rarely uninteresting, even as rife with cliché as it often seems. It links several stories by way of the titular building that houses many of the characters. Surprisingly, the poor live in small rooms on the roof, while the well-off inhabit rather posh apartments below. (Here in America, the classes are rarely allowed anything like such close proximity.) An aging roué pursues an assignation and pays dearly for it; a sexually frustrated but successful businessman/drug lord/would-be politician tries to increase his fortune and power; a gay newspaper editor seduces a soldier, lavishing him with forbidden delights; a young man and his girlfriend try to better themselves via legitimate channels, and, when these do not open, they turn to more desperate measures. Each story in itself is interesting and relatively well-told; together their strands weave a picture of Egyptian society just prior to the millennium.

To western eyes, however, much of what goes on will seem terribly dated--and not simply by being set back a decade or more in time. The film's (and I am guessing the book's, as well) attitude to homosexuality is unremittingly sleazy. While it may be commendable that the subject is being addressed at all, morally, culturally, literarily and cinematically, it comes off like fifty years ago. Gays are at best sick, deserving of--well, you'll see... But on the other hand, the film's treatment of women and the working poor seems to admit to inequality and pine for decency, while terrorism and fundamentalism are frowned upon, as is corruption in politics and the workplace. Oddly, the moral center of the movie is that aging roué, beautifully played by Adel Imam. He grows and learns as the film progresses, and we learn with him.

Stylistically, the movie tries a bit hard for the au courant--and so sometimes appears sadly dated. A slo-mo killing, complete with riddled body and beaucoup blood does not help matters: It’s as if the director suddenly thought, "Oh, I’d better be stylish at this point!" The movie's length, too (well over two-and-one-half hours) can make for some longeurs. Still, I am happy to have seen The Yacoubian Building -- if only for Mr. Imam's fine work and several other good performances. Plus, I have finally learned what the Middle-Eastern fuss over this film was all about.