When Khaled returns to his native Alexandria from his studies in the United States, he has difficulty finding his place until he discovers a vibrant underground youth culture of skateboarders, hip-hop musicians, female rockers, and graffiti artists. Tagged “highly radical in the context of contempo Egyptian and Arabic cinema” by critic Robert Koehler, the kinetic, colorful Microphone is a modern-day city symphony, a documentary embedded in a light fictional framework. The young people play themselves and collaborated on the script, amplifying their experiences as underground artists and musicians.