Following a violent break-up with Amr, his favourite actor, film-maker Yehia Eskandarany (aka Youssef Chahine) is forced to reconsider his whole life. Nothing is like what he used to know, neither his country, nor cinéma.
Recalling the memories of his first film with Amr (an autobiographical story about Alexandria) and his last (an adaptation of Hamlet in Alexandria), Yehia also tells the story of the penetration of the Gulf oil money into the Egyptian film industry which lead to the 1987 strike by people working in the entertainment industry in Cairo. They were fighting against a law which allows the leaders of the show business union to cling to their power forever and run the whole film industry for the sake of the Gulf’s financiers.
But is the Gulf money the only reason for Yehia and Amr’s break-up? Nadia, a young actress on strike ,forces Yehia to think about this and to question the nature of his love for Amr and the actors. Isn’t he, himself some sort a dictator ?
