A movie that breaks barriors...

Wow...homosexuality in a movie from Egypt.

A big-budget film in production in Cairo is about to roll back the limits of artistic acceptability in the Arab world by tackling a host of sensitive subjects including homosexuality.

The Yacoubian Building is based on a novel of the same name and depicts life in Cairo as unfair and thuggish.

Cover of
‘Sensitive’: in Egypt homo-
sexuality is a serious offence

The residents of a central Cairo apartment block, including a hashish-smoking doorman, a student-turned-prostitute, a corrupt imam and an ambitious politician, inhabit a world in which power means violence, terrorists are not born but made and sex is always exploitative. Despite its controversial depiction of sex and religion, the screenplay got past the censor.

"Nothing that we tackle in the movie has never been covered before," said Marwan Hamid, the director. "It's just we are doing all the taboos at the same time. The only really sensitive thing we are doing which has never been done before is talking about homosexuality in Egypt."

Hatim, one of the residents, has a boyfriend who is a married policeman. In Egypt homosexuality is a serious offence.

"This is what could get us into trouble," said Mr Hamid. "We present Hatim as a normal human being and this will lead to a lot of attacks when the movie comes out."

Let's watch for the reaction.