Yacobian Building: Sex and Seduction Egyptian style.
Warning Spoilers : I finally got a chance to watch a Yacobian Building over the weekend and must say I was impressed but disappointed at the same time. For the Arabic readers here, this Egyptian drama is probably one of the most hyped about Arabic movies to ever be released in recent times, where for a while there was even talk of Golden Globe and Oscar nominations. Unfortunately but not surprisingly, none of that materialized.
The Yacobian Building.... a 'serious-ish' drama/comedy, features an ensemble cast with a script that deals with multiple story lines in a manner similar to Babel and Syriana. An adaptation of the book of the same name, this movie tells the lives of a group of neighbors living in an apartment block in Cairo who have to cope with poverty, curruption, sex and terrorism in different ways. Although the book was a lot more cohesive in its structure, the film fails to translate the story successfully onto the screen and at times suffer from the soap opera melodrama that you would normally find in an Egyptian movie.
Oddly enough, despite having a weak and sometimes incoherent script, a strength of the movie comes from its ability to push the envelope and the boundaries of what should and should not be portrayed in Arabic cinema. This is not a family movie and is very strong and risqué in its content, even by Western standards. There are several scenes of brutal violence including the aftermath of a male rape, as well as a disturbing sex scene that takes place in the storeroom of a shop, a couple of bedroom shots between two 'strongly practicing' Muslims (totally unnecessary btw) and even a ten minute grooming sequence where a young married father is seduced into having a full on sexual relationship with an older man.
The film is essentially about the loss of innocence and the pain of change. Particularly striking was a scene that came after the storeroom sex scene, where it is heavily implied that the shop owner had ejaculated onto the dress of the heroine, in act that was barely consensual and her distress when attempting to clean the stain off afterwards. The scene that followed was pure genius, where she meets her childhood sweetheart and tries to cover up her sexual shame while telling him that their relationship is officially over, and there is no way to go back to the niceties and idealism of their youth.
Seduction and egotism are the central themes of this movie as all the characters are seduced into situations as a result of circumstance, ignorance or pride. A happily married man who no longer is sexually satisfied with his 1st wife and constantly suffers from wet dreams, seeks a second wife through convincing a young widowed mother into a secret marriage – with tragic results for her; while the idealistic but highly intelligent son of a poor building watchman finds himself seduced into Islamic extremism, as his low status in Egyptian society consistently prevents him from climbing up social the ladder, are just two of the intriguing stories that make up this movie. Despite being engaging, they were also badly delivered to the screen and the several sexual situations that worked well in the book came across as slightly vulgar and exploitative on the big screen.
The sex, the violence, the politics and the corruption featured in the Yacobian Building pushes the envelope, but fails to deliver in a satisfactory manner. Here the style of the content outweighs the depth of the stories and so what we are left with is an albeit extremely slick looking Hollywood drama (with some excellent performances by Adel Imam, Khalid El Sawy and the still stunningly beautiful Youssra), that ultimately suffers from a weak script and way too much melodrama. Unfortunately director Marwan Hamed failed to meld all these multiple stories together with the script he was given and because of this, the movie fails to reach its potential.
Despite the negatives, this movie is still worth a viewing for anyone old enough, whether they are Egyptian or not.
The Yacobian Building.... a 'serious-ish' drama/comedy, features an ensemble cast with a script that deals with multiple story lines in a manner similar to Babel and Syriana. An adaptation of the book of the same name, this movie tells the lives of a group of neighbors living in an apartment block in Cairo who have to cope with poverty, curruption, sex and terrorism in different ways. Although the book was a lot more cohesive in its structure, the film fails to translate the story successfully onto the screen and at times suffer from the soap opera melodrama that you would normally find in an Egyptian movie.
Oddly enough, despite having a weak and sometimes incoherent script, a strength of the movie comes from its ability to push the envelope and the boundaries of what should and should not be portrayed in Arabic cinema. This is not a family movie and is very strong and risqué in its content, even by Western standards. There are several scenes of brutal violence including the aftermath of a male rape, as well as a disturbing sex scene that takes place in the storeroom of a shop, a couple of bedroom shots between two 'strongly practicing' Muslims (totally unnecessary btw) and even a ten minute grooming sequence where a young married father is seduced into having a full on sexual relationship with an older man.
The film is essentially about the loss of innocence and the pain of change. Particularly striking was a scene that came after the storeroom sex scene, where it is heavily implied that the shop owner had ejaculated onto the dress of the heroine, in act that was barely consensual and her distress when attempting to clean the stain off afterwards. The scene that followed was pure genius, where she meets her childhood sweetheart and tries to cover up her sexual shame while telling him that their relationship is officially over, and there is no way to go back to the niceties and idealism of their youth.
Seduction and egotism are the central themes of this movie as all the characters are seduced into situations as a result of circumstance, ignorance or pride. A happily married man who no longer is sexually satisfied with his 1st wife and constantly suffers from wet dreams, seeks a second wife through convincing a young widowed mother into a secret marriage – with tragic results for her; while the idealistic but highly intelligent son of a poor building watchman finds himself seduced into Islamic extremism, as his low status in Egyptian society consistently prevents him from climbing up social the ladder, are just two of the intriguing stories that make up this movie. Despite being engaging, they were also badly delivered to the screen and the several sexual situations that worked well in the book came across as slightly vulgar and exploitative on the big screen.
The sex, the violence, the politics and the corruption featured in the Yacobian Building pushes the envelope, but fails to deliver in a satisfactory manner. Here the style of the content outweighs the depth of the stories and so what we are left with is an albeit extremely slick looking Hollywood drama (with some excellent performances by Adel Imam, Khalid El Sawy and the still stunningly beautiful Youssra), that ultimately suffers from a weak script and way too much melodrama. Unfortunately director Marwan Hamed failed to meld all these multiple stories together with the script he was given and because of this, the movie fails to reach its potential.
Despite the negatives, this movie is still worth a viewing for anyone old enough, whether they are Egyptian or not.
9 comments:
I saw this film on DVD last month and was so embarrassed. Watching this with my sisters and mom, we werent expecting any sex, especially since its arabic movie!
Worst of all was the gay sub plot. I really thought they were going to show the two men get down and dirty with each other towards the end. Still what they did show was quite strong and suggestive.
Times have changed.
Contrary to your critism, Rottantomatoes gave the film a Fresh 100% rating. That is the highest a film can get, so it cant be all that bad.
Oh pleeassee. The film is not all that sexually bad! Yeah the gay scenes went on a bit too long and was meant to be erotic, but the scene when the girl was getting raped in the shop was shocking, yet tastefully filmed. It was not exploitative at all and you can see much worse. Hills of Eyes 2 anyone??
Broke Back Cairo. LOL.
@ Anon. Anyone who types 'lol' after their own jokes is sad. lol.
Two things i learnt from this movie:
1) The quickest way to turn a man gay is to get him drunk while watching str8 porn.
) Dont ever get into a fight with an egyptian woman, they maybe cute but they are also loud and you will loose... everything.
The film sucked. 1 out of 10 from me coz i rather Live Free and Die Hard than watch this 3 hour bore again ;-)
So weird.. I was thinking about this book (not movie) yesterday.. my friend who passed away told me to read the book (I never did) and now you guys are writing about it.. definitely a sign!
I heared that in Egypt people were going to see this film with their families and being shocked at the content...
The themes are strongly adult but the truth of the matter is, the film isnt that bad. There is no 'tits and ass' on screen, and most of the sex is just 'suggested', that is we see the characters planning to have sex but only once do you see it actually happen.
@ Buj. Read the book before watching the movie or else you will disappointed.
@ J. Yeah i figure Die Hard 4 would be much more you type...with all those explosions and stuff ;-)
yahya.. i guessed that much.. but thanks for the advice.. i will check out the book :)
bless u.
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