In a Special review to The Daily Star, Lebanon, by Ali Jaafar Marwan Hamed's debut film The Yacoubian Building was described as “…depicts a layered society gone brittle”

He stares that as a film, "it is a daring attempt to portray the kaleidoscope of modern-day Cairo. With a budget of $4 million, it is also the most expensive Egyptian film to date. With everything from corruption to Muslim fundamentalism and homosexuality on the menu, "Yacoubian" certainly presents viewers with a full spread”.

He adds “Although the film is faithful to the book - the only glaring omission is a thinly-veiled Mubarak character called the Big Man - the plot of "Yacoubian" is anything but straightforward”.

On the characterization he says that “…at its heart is Zaki al-Dessouki, he looms large over the rest of the film, a fading playboy pasha, played winningly by an Adel Imam mercifully free from the hamming that has blighted so many of his recent performances”.

“Elsewhere, there is Bothayna, brought to life by the ripe voluptuousness of Hend Sabri, the chaste young woman forced by circumstance to be the sole breadwinner in her poor family.

Her boyfriend of sorts is Taha al-Shazly, an honest, hard-working young man whose dream of joining the police force is sdemolished by his humble, working-class origins.”

The film juxtaposes his increasing Islamic fundamentalism with the supposedly respectable religious piety of Haj Azzam. Also born to modest means, Azzam has risen from shoeshine boy to wealthy businessman with dreams of becoming a politician.

Rounding off the central cast is Hatem Rasheed, a refined francophile news editor torn between publicly hiding his homosexuality while privately reveling in it.”

“Aside from Imam's weathered pasha, Nour al-Sherif turns in a bravura performance as Haj Azzam. Starting out as what seems to be the personification of religious correctness, Sherif peels back the veneer of respectability to reveal the hypocrisy of social conservatism”.