Heliopolis

The account takes place in the Heliopolis district of Cairo. All of it fits inside a single day. The district was once among the grandest parts of the city. Now it is worn and faded. The film follows several people through that day. One is a doctor trying to emigrate to Canada. One is an engaged couple looking for a flat. One is a hotel receptionist who dreams of Paris. One is a postgraduate student researching the history of the neighbourhood. One is a lonely officer on watch in a quiet street. Their paths cross now and then, but nobody notices what anyone else is carrying, and nobody gets where they meant to go. What the film really traces is the vanishing history of the district. Khaled Abol Naga and Yosra El Lozy appear in the ninety six minute film, the first feature Ahmad Abdalla finished, in 2009.