The famous Yacoubian building

Everyone I know has read or is reading Alaa ElAswany's "Umaret Yacoubian". Its a good novel, but its very interesting why everyone would have that urge to read it, even people who haven't been reading novels in a long time. The publicity of making the novel into a movie has certainly helped, and made alot of people curious about that novel that combined Adel Imam, Nour AlSherif and a group of other hard to get actors in one movie.

I feel that people are really getting obsessed with this novel. I'm not sure why, but maybe because it is so realistic reflecting the current state of the Egyptian society, with its different societal classes integrated and interacting at different levels. It is so realistic that some of the characters resemble real Egyptian figures. Kamal ElFooly, Hatem the homosexual French magazine editor, Hagg Azzam the womanizer who wants to buy his way to the parliament. One-to-one mapping of known Egyptian figures.

People really love talking and reading about taboo subjects, and this novel is full of it. Lots of sex, homosexuality, corrupt politics and sheikhs, police brutality and all with a strong sense of reality and non-fictitious characters. Beats sitting at the cafe and chatting about all that stuff, and making up rumours about people. And now, there's even a common background and vocabulary established too, like "borghol" and "codian".

Interesting too is how its been endorsed even though it views the society through a very negative lense. I was really surprised that they are making a movie out of this novel. Its one thing to let an author criticize and write elaborately about all the tabooed subjects in a book, which is usually read by a relative few (although not in this case), and another thing to make a movie out of it that has a much higher rate of penetration and reaches a much wider audience.

I would really like to see how such a movie would turn out, and how the censor would handle it, and how much of the original novel would remain. Ofcourse, Adel Imam has alot of weight and influence, and can have much of the movie go his way subduing the censor. But already, Wahid Hamid is excluding the character of Taha, the porter son. I was wondering for a while how such a character would be played out in the movie. A character which embodies a very harsh criticism of social injustice, but more importantly (to the authorities), of the police. Whether when he was trying to get admitted to the Police Academy, or when he was detained and subjected to torture and inhumane treatment, which may lead some to be empathetic to some of the Islamist movements.

How will they play the gay characters, and who will play those roles is beyond me. Can they really play out the Parliament corruption on film? However, with the current sexual state of the entertainment industry, I think they will play the sex parts of the novel very accurately.

Overall, I really doubt that the movie will be anything like the novel. It will be a box office hit, that's for sure. All those actors in one movie, and having the same title as the novel, I think will do wonders to the tickets sales.

On another note. I was reading an earlier novel of ElAswany, "Neeran Sadeeka", and I really connected with the main character's views about Egypt and Egyptians. To my dismay, the guy ended up in the mental hospital! So maybe its justifiable after all when my friends call me crazy.