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Amos Lassen wrote on 04/03/2011:

We don’t get a lot of movies from Egypt and “The Yacoubian Building” (Strand Releasing) manages to capture all of the dysfunctional elements of Egyptian society and while looking at some the taboos of the country manages to entertain the viewer. The problems of Egyptian society from prostitution to homosexuality and many other things that we would not expect to hear about because the Muslim religion labels them as taboo.
The movie is based on a book by Alaa el Aswani in which he tackles three of the sacred cows of society—religion, sex and politics and from I understand that the movie is faithful to the book. It takes a look at the secular world in an Islamic country and concentrates on the indulgence in alcohol, the corruption of politics, personal betrayals, and sexual promiscuity—issues that are not associated with or tolerated by the world of Islam.
The Yacoubian Building is Armenian owned and is located in the once elegant and restricted part of Cairo which was once home to the rich and powerful. Not long after the revolution, the building began its decline and became a high rise slum.
The movie is set in the 1990’s and we first meet “Zak Pasha”, a playboy who has been kicked out of his family. He is the aristocrat of the building. His manservant, Fanous, is totally faithful to him. Pasha’s sister, Dawlat, resents her brother because of his fun-loving ways. Hatem Rasheed is a gay editor who takes a handsome young soldier, Abu, as his lover. Rasheed represents the discomfort that most Egyptians have with homosexuality. He prefers dark, black men because they cause him to remember an early experience he had once with a servant to his family.
Haj Assan, a self-made millionaire, has political ambitions and wants to get into the People’s Assembly because he knows that it will cause the doors of power to open for him. He marries a poor young widow and forces her to have an abortion. The purpose of his character seems to be to show the difference of the “noveau riche” to the true aristocrat. Then there are Coptic Christian brothers who save every penny they make, legally or illegally, to be able to afford a room on the roof of the building.