Yacoubian Building to be screened in Room 3-133

The Yacoubian Building holds all that Egypt was and has become over the 75 years since its namesake was built on one of downtown Cairo?s main boulevards. From the pious son of the building?s doorkeeper and the raucous, impoverished squatters on its roof, via the tattered aristocrat and the gay intellectual in its apartments, to the ruthless businessman whose stores occupy its ground floor, each sharply etched character embodies a facet of modern Egypt -- here political corruption, ill-gotten wealth, and religious hypocrisy are natural allies, where the arrogance and defensiveness of the powerful find expression in the exploitation of the weak, where youthful idealism can turn quickly to extremism, and where an older, less violent vision of society may yet prevail. 2006 - 162 Min

Shown as part of: TRANSITIONS - A FILM SERIES ON MODERN CAIRO

Cairo is transforming. Its traditionally recognizable city structure of buildings, pedestrian areas, streets, public spaces and other spaces of gathering are shifting in their character, societal and economic values. Cairo?s downtown is loosing its role as a center of modern Egyptian heritage. There has been a trend of gated communities built around Cairo in the form of satellite, or even parasite cities dependent on their connectivity to Cairo yet distant enough from its congestion, pollution and urban decay.

However there has also been a recent trend of urban development projects within the dense fabric of Cairo in the form of malls, hotels, and other spaces of private interest that fill the gaps within Cairo districts such as downtown. And finally there is an on going trend of major institutions moving out of central districts such as downtown. The Egyptian Museum and the American University in Cairo are two major institutions moving out of downtown creating two major gaps in the center of Cairo. These institutions have supplied central Cairo with a daily flow of foreigners, wealthy Egyptians and mixture of consumers of public space who will soon have to head to the periphery to visit the museum or the university, denying downtown of its last hope of a cosmopolitan feel. These trends are undeniably processes of globalization and Cairo?s brand of urban growth. Transitions is a film series exhibiting and narrating moments of transition in Cairo?s modern history from the past century leading up to the present. The film series attempts to place Cairo?s present in the context of social, cultural and economic shifts in the last forty years. The series consists of three films: Adrift on the Nile, Al Karnak, and Yacoubian Building to be screened in Room 3-133 (MIT main Campus) at 5:30 pm on April 12, 19 and 26.