It was a crazy movie. But, the craziest part of the movie was the truth behind some of the most awful scenes. From the beginning, Sheheta is in love with this girl. He plans on marrying her, and they have numerous scenes together where they almost kiss, but they never do. Towards, the middle of the movie, they finally just kiss, but the day after his father dies and soon enough the corrupt government along with his jealous siblings (because he was the most loved by their father) sends him to jail. While he's in jail, the girl visits him and tells him she'll always wait.
Some times goes by and this girl's brother forces her to marry one of Shehata's brothers. She refuses, but she doesn't have a choice in the matter. After her wedding, she refuses to consummate the marriage, so her husband goes outside and gathers his sister and a couple other guys to hold his wife down while he consummates the marriage/rapes her. You don't see the whole scene, but you do see his sister holding his wife arms back while he's on top of his wife. Apart from that scene, there's one other scene that insinuates marital rape. And, apart from those scenes, there were plenty of scenes of domestic violence.
Now, this is a movie. But, here are some statistics from the Egypt DHS 1995 and 2005 surveys. In 1995, about 70% of married women said that a man is justified to beat his wife if she refuses sex. In 2005, the percentage dropped, but still 40% of married women said that a man is justified to beat his wife if she refuses sex. Furthermore, in 2005, about 25% of women said that a man is justified to beat his wife if she burns the food.
Anyways, Sheheta finally gets out of jail and goes looking for this girl. No one will tell him either where she is or where his family is. By the end of the movie, he finally finds her, but when his brother sees him talking to her, he shoots Sheheta in the back and kills him.
Oddly enough that's not how the movie ended. An odd side story arised and the Muslim Brotherhood took over Egypt in an almost comical manner with men in jalabiyas running around with knives looking kind of funny.
