Both Mahmoud and Zeinab join in the search for the original version of an Egyptian film that was made back in the 1980s, all copies of which were confiscated for unknown reasons by the government film agency at the time.
In the fading grandeur of downtown Cairo, Khalid, a 35-year-old filmmaker is struggling to make a film that captures the pulse of his city at a moment when all around him dreams as much as buildings are disintegrating. With the help of his friends who send him footage from their lives in Beirut, Baghdad and Berlin, he finds the strength to keep going through the difficulty and beauty of living IN THE LAST DAYS OF THE CITY.
The film is set inside one of Cairo's slums, where a group of outlaws sit on top of the social hierarchy, running a country inside the country, and having control over the majority of the town's poor and helpless locals.
Weaving together music, politics and storytelling, THE DREAM OF SHAHRAZAD explores recent social and political events in Egypt, Turkey and Lebanon through the metaphor of THE 1001 NIGHTS, and looks at the ways in which creativity and political articulation coincide in response to oppression. Drawing on Shahrazad, the princess who saves lives by telling stories, a youth orchestra conductor, a Cairean storytelling troupe, a troubled Lebanese actress and various others all put art to new political use.
Professor Ramadan is a feared and well respected teacher in a village, forced to take a job in the city teaching at a private school. He soon realizes that most of his students are infatuated with a famous singer whom he tries to ban all mention of within the school, only to fall in love with her himself.
