Egyptian film challenges taboos

The Yacoubian Building, based off of the book by Ala Aswani, is taking the Egyptian box office by storm. The film frankly tackles taboos such as homosexuality, terrorism and abuse. It is stirring quite a debate about what is acceptable to discuss openly in Egyptian culture. Director Marwan Hamed wants to engage discussion and feels that Arabs should be more open about such issues: "In our countries... we need to talk more, to express ourselves, to have discussions in a civilised way - to make this country better." (BBC article here)

It looks fascinating, I can't wait to see it for myself. The film has already graced Tribeca and Cannes and I sincerely hope it will find its way to Toronto for TIFF. If it does you can rest assured I'll be the first in line :)

Apologies for the lack of posts here, I really want to start using this space better. I recently participated in Blogathon/Day of Blogs at this blog and it made me realize how much I love writing. I had so many ideas and potential posts taking up room in my head and I didn't implement them. But no more! Fava deserves better.