The Aquarium

The Aquarium, a concrete garden in the center of Cairo, gives Yousry Nasrallah’s film its title as well as its principal image of metropolitan malaise. The Aquarium’s thirty-something characters function as loose metaphors floating through a modern, Cairo-set panorama. The two disconnected, almost isolated from the world, protagonists are Laila, who hosts a late-night talk radio show called "Night Secrets", and Youssef, one of her faithful listeners and a successful anaesthetist who lives in his car. She gives advice to callers with love and sex issues and he casually injects himself with morphine in order to convince his most stubborn patients (including his own ill father) to receive their sedatives. In essence, they are both listeners and healers in a city of contradictions and unrest.
Screening Schedule

No physical screenings scheduled.
Script: Yousry Nasrallah, Nasser Abdel Rahman
Cinematography: Samir Bahsan
Editing: Mona Rabi
Sound: Ibrahim El Dessouky, Christophe Vingtrinier
Music: Tamer Karawan
Actors: Hend Sabry (Laila), Amr Waked (Youssef), Gamil Ratib (Youssef’s father), Bassem Samra (Zakki), Ahmed El Fishawy (Amr), Samah Anwar (Marguerite)
Production: Misr International Films, Archipel 33, Pandora Film & Sunny Land Film Ltd.
Producers: Gabriel Khoury, Denis Freyd, Karl Baumgartner
Costumes: Nahed Nasrallah
Sets: Adel El Maghrabi
Format: 35mm Color
Production Country: Egypt-France-Germany
Production Year: 2008
Duration: 111
Contact: Misr International Films, EgyptT. +202 2578 5361mif@starnet.com.egwww.misrinternationalfilms.comArt, Egyptartadmin1@art.com.eg

Yousry Nasrallah

He was born in Cairo in 1952 and studied Statistics at Cairo University, where he participated in Egypt’s film club movement. His early work in cinema included stints with one of the most important directors in Syria, Omar Amiralay, and the most important director in Egypt, Youssef Chahine. His first film, Summer Thefts, played at Cannes in 1988 and later won 17 festival awards. His subsequent films have also been widely screened and honored at festivals worldwide. He divides his time between Cairo and Paris.

Filmography

(Selected)
1988 Sarikat sayfeya/Summer Thefts
1993 Marcides/Mercedes
1995 Sobyan we banat/On Boys, Girls and the Veil (doc.)
1999 El Medina/The City
2004 Bab el Shams/Gate of the Sun
2008 Genenet al asmak/The Aquarium