Ahmad Rateb

Masry el Araby is an American-Egyptian citizen who travels back to his home town (in Egypt) after living in the US for 20 years. He has this idea of Egypt being a wonderful and amazing country, but the idea soon crashes as he faces reality. After arriving in Egypt, Masry is treated badly when he uses his Egyptian Passport. But then when he starts using his American Passport as an identification card, he is paid with a lot of respect. He faces many problems as he loses both passports.

Cairo: a 70-year-old building of once-luxury flats with tenements on the roof. Zika, an aging libertine, feuds with his sister. Pius Haj Azzam takes a second wife, in secret, to satisfy sexual drive within religious bounds. Bothayna, poor and beautiful, supports her family, wanting to do so with dignity intact. Her former fiancé, Taha, the janitor's son, humiliated by the police, turns to fundamentalism. Hatem, a gay editor, seduces and corrupts a young man from the sticks. Two brothers, Copts, one a tailor and one Zika's factotum, connive for property. Allah is on most everyone's lips, and corruption is in their hearts.