The Yacoubian Building (2006) & A Summer in La Goulette (1996)

I have chosen to review two Arabic-language films (with English subtitles) because I know that within Vancouver’s Jewish community there are Sephardi families, whose great grandparents, grandparents, aunts and uncles originated from Arabic-speaking countries (e.g. Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, Iraq and Egypt). Today’s review is about The Yacoubian Building an Egyptian production and A Summer in La Goulette filmed in Tunisia.

Do you remember the doll’s house or the two-story miniature building that you  played with when you were young? There was a realistic front- facade with a door, windows, and shutters, but the back of the house was open and one could see into every room, and peer into every corner of the house. The film The Yacoubian Building offers the viewer such an intimate and unrelenting exposure to modern Egyptian society and life in Cairo around 1990. The setting is downtown Cairo, with the titular apartment building (which actually exists) serving as both a metaphor for contemporary Egypt and a unifying location in which most of the primary characters either live or work and in which much of the action takes place. The Yacoubian, a 70-year old building of once-luxury flats with tenements on the roof, offers up an eclectic mix of socioeconomic lifestyles. We are involved in the lives of all-manner of flawed and fragile humanity. Their individual lives converge in surprising twists of fate; both men and women are manipulative and thieving. Yet the director goes to great length to also show how these people are victims of their merciless society. The narrative is a condemnation of a nation that has squandered its promise and which has been forced to compromise its principles, resulting in a corrupt political system dominated by a single party.

At nearly three hours long, the movie distinguishes itself as the most expensive Egyptian film ever made. The Yacoubian Building was Egypt’s official submission to the 79th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. This film was very popular and is based on the best-selling novel of the same name; a television series continued its phenomenal success. There are explicit sexual and violent scenes in the film; homosexuality is represented in a graphic manner. This film offers an open window on a society most of us will never get to experience.

And now for something different, a bittersweet comedy-drama tells the tale of how the secret conspiracy between three teenage girls to lose their virginity wreaks havoc on the lives and friendships between their disparate families.

A Summer in La Goulette is a French production by Tunisian director Ferid Boughedir. It is summer, 1967, La Goulette, the touristic beach of Tunisia is the site where three nice seventeen-year-old girls live. Gigi, Sicilian and Catholic; Meriem, Tunisian and Arab; Tina, French and Jewish. Their fathers have known each for many years, but underneath their friendship lies a silent but strong undercurrent of tension that relates to their different religions and ethnic origins. It is a narrative of how inter-communal relations deteriorate in cosmopolitan La Goulette after the end of French rule, especially Muslim-Jewish relations affected by the Six-Day War and the rising impact of Islam on the Tunisian society. The actress Claudia Cardinale, a La Goulette native, is featured as herself. It is the end of an era, and signals the continuing momentum of the exodus of Jews from North Africa.

The Waldman Library has a selection of Arabic-language movies: Caramel, The Syrian Bride, Ajami, Divine Intervention, Paradise Now, Omar and Bethlehem.

Reviewed by Dolores Luber

These movies are available free from the Isaac Waldman Jewish Public Library at the JCC.

TO RESERVE e-mail library@jccgv.bc.ca
The Waldman Library encourages you to donate your DVDs, in either NTSC or PAL format. We wish to create a collection of films which is inclusive and comprehensive and we depend on our friends to donate either their DVDs or to make a contribution towards the purchase of more films. Thank you.