Synopsis

In connection with a heart operation (as a result of an unhealthy lifestyle), the Egyptian film director Yehia thinks back on his life. What effect the American dream has had on him, his desire for success, the crisis surrounding the Egyptian revolution and his own illness.

A trial takes place in a dreamlike universe between the young and older Yehia, who want to make fun of each other. Another brave film from Chahine's hand, where Yehia and a London taxi driver exchange homoerotic glances.



Cast: Oussama Nadir, Mohsen Mohieddin, Nour El-Sherif, Ahmed Mehrez, Mohamed Mounir, Ragaa Hussein, Seif El Dine, Yousra Hanan, Leila Hamada, Magda El-Khatib, Ragaa El Geddawy, Soheir El Monasterli, Andrew Dinwoodie, Abdel Hadi Anwar


It was entered into the main competition at the 39th edition of the Venice Film Festival.

The film is in colour, but frequently splices in archive footage, mostly in black and white, forcibly integrating a documentary perspective on Egyptian history. The main character, Yehia, often alludes to Shakespeare's Hamlet. Yehia is the same character as the one who appears in the 1979 film Alexandria... Why?. While the film's frame narrative and its flashbacks are shot in a realist mode, the courtroom drama within Yehia's chest is dream-like and highly symbolic.