User Reviews

wahid hamid wrote about his vision of Cairo in the mid 90s.i think hanan in the movie (Mona Zaki) symbolizes Egypt torn in a struggle between Atef (Amr Waked) the thief and risha (abd el moghny) the terrorist. The screenplay is based on a true story that took place in the mid 90s in the same neighborhood (Embaba). Hanan was raised by two men; A fraud (Nour el sheriff)and a waiter ( salah abd allah) who is helpless and has the followers' attitude. Raised by these two figures after her parents passed away, she became helpless and scared, thats why she accepts whatever happens to her as her fate. Even when she got a job and her employer (yousra) the symbol for the Egyptian higher class, she was not safe. Hamid had a very gloomy vision of the country. The lower class is torn between crime and terrorism, the average man is either helpless or care for nothing but debauchery and how to earn a living without any real job or career. on the other hand the upper class model (Yousra) is all time threatened by her shameful past and her cruel husband who achieved his status by illegal methods. The police in the movie is either bullying the people or using them, and the victim is Hanan in the end. None of the characters in the movie developed except for Risha who developed to be a terrorist for vengeance. The movie is a true documentation for Egypt in the 90s and up till now. The screenplay is marvelous yet too depressing, that explains why it didn't score much in the box offices race. The Egyptian audience hate to be reminded with the reality and would favor a trashy comic movie with a stupid song and some skin. THe art direction was great, the director of photography did a great job and so is the music score. The movie is a must see but don't expect a commercial films .

As usual Wahid Hamid is making fun of the audience by showing half the truth without telling the whole truth which makes the movie unrealistic, Wahid Hamid stereotyping the Muslims with beards as tourists which is not true, even Americans don't do this kind of lies in their movies like Syriana and Paradise now, it's a Shame that you give this image about Muslims without giving the good one too, as for Mohamed Yassine very poor scene except for the fight scene between Amr Waked and Abd El Moughney, the art direction was pretty cool in the ghetto and all the other locations was out of taste of the 90s the styling wasn't bad for all the characters except for Mona Zaki in casual the lightning was the one of the best things in the movie for acting it was really poor for stars like Yousra, Nour el Shereief and as usual Mona Zaki with no creative acting, Salah Abd ALLAH and Amr Waked were great you feel that they got them from another movie a good start for the new up comer Abd El Moughney the dialogue of Nour el Sherief was very unrealistic and boring in the ending scene. Just great real