Terrorism and Kebab

Terrorism and Kebab is a farce denouncing the absurdity of bureaucracy. It is also a dramatic parable about impotence. The story is set in the El-Mugamaa Building, the centre of the monolithic Egyptian bureaucracy in Cairo, housing several ministries.The leading role is played by the best comic actor in Arab cinema, Adel Imam. He is a father who wants his son moved to a school nearer home and who has come to the building to pick up the requisite documents. No one wants to listen to him and he has to seek out the relevant officials on the toilet, in adjacent buildings, in a smart hotel, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Arab League Mission. In the end he attacks a fundamentalist official who spends his time praying and not working. The heavily-armed police then puts in an appearance and in the melee the man gets a machine gun pushed into his hands. Police and general public then think he is part of a gang of terrorists. He doesn't object to this image and the building is surrounded. He puts his first demand to the Minister of Internal Affairs: Shis Kebab, made of high-class lamb. He couldn't think of anything else on the spur of the moment. All the hostages have a hearty meal and that gives him an idea. More demands are made, increasingly political demands: medicines, better schools and in the end the resignation of the government.Rafiq El-Sabban (Al Ahram Weekly): 'A savage expose of society tellingly, cleverly done'.