Yousra Movies
The lives and loves of a handful of Egyptian aristocrats -- some flush, others living in shabby gentility -- set the stage for this epic-scale drama, based on a best-selling Egyptian novel. The Yacoubian is a luxury apartment building which was built in Cairo in the late '30s. At the dawn of the 21st century, the Yacoubian still has charm and a reputation for elegance, but is beginning to show clear signs of decay, and the rooftop laundry facilities now double as flats for the less fortunate. Among the residents of Yacoubian are Haj Azzam (Nour El Sherif), a self-made business tycoon noted for his strict religious views. However, Azzam's public morality is a far cry from his private life, in which he uses his fortune to buy both political influence and the hand of a beautiful widow (Somaya El Khashab). Hatem Rasheed (Khaled El Sawy) is a respected newspaper editor who has a shocking secret -- he's gay, and is romantically involved with handsome young soldier. Zaki Pasha (Adel Imam) is an aging self-styled lady killer who has long lived at the Yacoubian off the largesse of his family. When his sister kicks him out of their flat, he is forced to move into the office he used for his trysts. Zaki turns to his former girlfriend Christine (Yousra) for help, but she can do nothing for him. Meanwhile, Bosnaina (Hind Sabry), who lives in one of the rooftop apartments and cleans Zaki's room, has grown tired of her relationship with her boyfriend, Taha (Mohamed Imam), who has developed a troubling interest in Muslim extremism. Omaret Yacoubian (aka The Yacoubian Building) was the first feature film from director Marwan Hamed. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 2001
This drama from Egyptian filmmaker Khaled Youssef offers Western audiences an unusual perspective on the Gulf War, as a family is torn apart by conflicting personal and political allegiances. Hoda (Yousra) is a schoolteacher who became a single mother after her husband, a victim of post-traumatic stress disorder, left his family behind. Ten years later, Hoda has raised her two sons, Aly (Mohamed Nagati) and Nagy (Hani Salama), to young adulthood, and has declined to remarry, despite the presence of her supportive boyfriend Mahmoud (Hisham Selim). Nagy has fallen in love with Hayat (Hanan Tork), a student and political activist from a wealthy family, but her parents don't want her to marry a man without a fortune of his own. As Nagy tries to save enough money to convince Hayat's family he's a worthy husband, Aly decides to help by getting a job to make more money for the family; however, work is hard to come by in Egypt, so he moves to Iraq to take a position there. Once Aly has settled into his new life in Iraq, the war in the Gulf breaks out, and the two brothers discover to their horror that they're fighting in opposing armies -- Aly comes home to swear allegiance to Egypt and join their forces, while Nagy, under the influence of Hayat, has thrown his support behind Iraq. La Tempete, aka Al Assifa received its American premiere at the 2001 San Francisco Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yousra, Hanane Tork, (more)
- 1996
This outwardly light Egyptian comedy contains serious undertones that sternly condemn the corrupt politics and religious extremism that filmmaker Sherif Arafa believes is destroying his country. Attorney for the downtrodden Fathi Nofal Imam is a no-nonsense, canny man with a taste for booze and fallen women. The story centers on his representation of Samira, a woman up on prostitution charges whom Imam defends. His opponent is the fundamentalist Islamic lawyer Ali and both of them face an equally Islamic judge. Despite these formidable obstacles, the clever Imam is able to work the crooked justice system and use religion to free Samira. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
The biblical tale of Joseph is told from an Egyptian perspective in this interesting character study. In this film, Joseph is called Ram. Ram, tired of his family's backward superstitious life, and tired of being picked on by his brothers, wants to go to Egypt to study agriculture. His brothers travel with him across Sinai, but then suddenly sell him to Ozir, an Egyptian who works for a Theban military leader, Amihar. Amihar is impressed by Ram's drive and personal charm and so grants Ram some desolate land outside the capital. Ram soon finds himself a pawn in the political and sexual games between Amihar and his wife Simihit, a high priestess of the Cult of Amun. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yousra, Mahmoud Hemida, (more)
- 1993
Noubi (Zaki Abdel Wahab is a rich man with a few insurmountable quirks. One is that he is dedicated to giving away as much of his money as possible, preferably to the Communist Party. For that, he spent some time in a mental hospital. Now he is resigned to the fact that he is unlikely to be able to accomplish that goal, so he has hit on another scheme: he will seek out his apparently poor cousin (actually his half-brother, given away at birth) Gamal (Magdi Kamel) in order to give him some money. He tracks him down to a gay movie house, but Gamal and his boyfriend don't want to be found, and they escape. Instead, Noubi finds himself embroiled in a series of ever more unlikely romantic and political adventures, one of which involves a belly dancer (Yousra) who looks exactly like his eccentric, deceased mother. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yousra, Abla Kamel, (more)
In the third and final film in director Youssef Chahine's Alexandria trilogy, the director plays Yehia, a filmmaker who joins in a hunger strike organized by technicians protesting the inequities of the Egyptian film industry. While struggling for better conditions for his fellow workers, Yehia also finds himself obsessed with both Amir (Amr Abdel-Guelil), a handsome young man he starred in one of his previous films, and Nadia (Yousra), a beautiful woman whom he hopes to use in his next film. The film walks a fine line between narrative and surrealism as Yehia tries to resolve his conflicting attitudes about love, sex, art, and politics. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yousra, Youssef Chahine, (more)
- 1986
In this comic parable of social and political dysfunction, a plane load of roughly a dozen people crash in the desert and find refuge in an oasis. One of the survivors, a businessman (Gamil Ratib), cajoles, cons, and connives his way to power, and once in control, has them do his bidding. He pays his "workers" -- who build his house for him -- as little as he can and punishes them with diminished wages (dates) when they are not producing up to speed. An artist (Ahmed Zaki) tries to organize the workers/passengers into a rebellion but he comes up against a peasant (Hamdi Ahmed) and others who cannot see his point. Revolution appears to be a certainty though, even if the artist initially fails. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ahmed Zaki, Yousra, (more)
- 1984
In this parody on the Egyptian legal and social systems by director Raafat El-Mihi, Hassan (Adel Imam) is a glib lawyer who verbally bends the law to suit his circumstances but is not astute enough to stay out of jail. Between this lawyer, a judge, a policeman, and a teacher, the foibles of a society in which the law and justice are two separate concepts are surrealistically and comically noted. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
The critically acclaimed Youssef Chahine wrote, directed, and produced this autobiographical movie about his filmmaking career and the Egyptian political scene as it evolved at the same time he was growing and changing as a director. His memories are prompted by a moment on the operating table when he is about to go under anesthesia for heart surgery. At the core of his reminiscing is the 1952 revolution and its demise in 1967, and the relationships between his life, his work, and his country. Egyptian Story is the follow-up to his preceding Alexandria...Why?. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nour El Cherif
