الخلبوص

Youssef (Mohamed Ragab) is an artistic photographer who inherited vast wealth from his father that lies idle in banks. Living alone in a spacious apartment, he relies on his maternal cousin Malak (Eman El-Assi) to manage his affairs. Bound by a special relationship, the two are closer than siblings. Hoping to be freed from looking after him, Malak seeks out a bride for him, tries to find a venue to host his first photography exhibition, and makes sure to celebrate his birthday. Malak is also writing a book about male spinsterhood—men whose marriage prospects dwindle as they age, regardless of wealth—using Youssef as a case study. They share a mutual friend, Ehab (Mohamed Soliman), who confesses his love to Malak. Viewing him merely as a friend and brother, she asks for time to consider him as a romantic partner or husband and eventually agrees to their engagement, an arrangement welcomed by Youssef. At his debut exhibition, Youssef meets the beautiful Farida (Samia Trabelsi), becomes infatuated with her, and resolves to marry her. Learning she is a romantic literature lover, he woos her romantically, claims that Naguib Mahfouz is his uncle, and hands her a spare key to his apartment in hopes of luring her to bed. Instead, she monopolizes his ear on the phone for eight to ten hours a day rambling about trivial, repetitive topics until, bored stiff, he breaks up with her. To his shock, he finds her in his apartment having slashed her wrists, but Malak rescues him by rushing her to the hospital. Youssef then crosses paths with Mariam (Inas Kamel), who is on the run from the police; he helps her escape and hides her in his apartment, only to discover she is a revolutionary activist. Having gone without food for two days, she raids his refrigerator, declaring that a true revolutionary does not eat or sleep until justice is served for the oppressed, and lectures him that the root problem is the aristocracy's apathy toward the working class. Handed a key to the apartment, she uses it to hold secret meetings with fellow revolutionaries, leading state security to raid the place and arrest them all, along with Youssef. Upon his release, Youssef prostrates in gratitude to God, but is nearly hit by a car. Mesmerized by the beauty of the driver, Jessie (Rania El-Mallah), he feigns injury, and she takes him home to treat him, even hiring a plasterer to cast his perfectly sound leg. She tells him her father married her mother's friend and emigrated to Canada, while her mother married her father's friend and moved to Australia. When he proposes, she insists on testing him in bed first, which he welcomes, only to learn she had put numerous men through the same test before him. Despairing, he turns to a traditional arranged marriage and proposes to Lola (Mirhan Hussein). Malak feels a pang of jealousy, realizing her true feelings for Youssef, and breaks off her engagement with Ehab. Youssef also begins yearning for Malak, but soon discovers that Lola, her father (Alaa Zeinhom), her mother (Salwa Othman), and her brother Hossam (Mohamed El-Fakharany) are vulgar opportunists who exploit him, and that Lola is already engaged to an expatriate in the Gulf whose savings they are draining. Fleeing the arrangement, Youssef is told by Ehab that Malak loves him. Moved to his core, he rushes to profess his love to her as she moderates a panel discussion on her newly released book about male spinsterhood. (The Playboy)

• CategoriesFamilyComedyRomance