Muntasir, a Saidi from the Egyptian countryside, works for an employment agency that for a fee sends Egyptians to work abroad. He discovers that the whole operation is a scam involving false papers and passports, cheating people out of entire life savings they have put into the employment fee. His boss has (the whistle-blower) falsely arrested as the one responsible for the scam. In filming Muntasir's escape to his village in the Said, Atef al-Tayyib offers a poetically charged tribute to the beauty and culture of southern Egypt, so often portrayed in terms of "backwardness." The music of the Said speaks of freedom, flight, and dignity, in contrast to the intrigue and malice of Cairo.-Alia Arasoughly