8 characters skew lifelines that never really intersect in the suburb of Heliopolis in Cairo within a frame of time of 24 hours all in a very stagnant state and never achieving goals.
Hawi is about several Egyptian citizens living in the city of Alexandria under very tough conditions. They are striving to make a living and make ends meet and all they have is hope.
Maha has always been passionate about cinema, and as a set designer she's become an expert at creating imaginary worlds. Under immense pressure at work, she sights another life on the horizon and begins slipping between realities-one resembling the film set she's designed and the other her supposed real life. As she grows ever more entangled in each, the border between reality and imagination becomes blurred, and she must choose for the first time what she truly desires.
Amr is a 35 year old man who wakes up one day to a very different Egypt. Amr rarely leaves home as he works from his place designing software. It is January 25, 2011 and Amr starts the day with news of protests all over Cairo and marches leading to Tahrir square. Something tells him that these protests will lead to major political change. Farah, a woman in her early 30’s, is a news anchor on Egyptian television. The news Farah gives her audience is very different from the news presented online or on international news channels.
As the Egyptian society is hit with a wave of religious and national extremism, filmmaker Nadia Kamal and her grandmother Mary resort to storytelling as they recount to the grandson Nabeel the history spanning 100 years of changes. What's a better way than storytelling to preserve identity?
Shams is a young girl who resides in the local neighborhood of Ain Shams. The life of the family turns into a tragedy when they learn their young Shams has leukemia, and they try to fulfill her only wish to visit Downtown Cairo.
When Al-Ott learns that a group of his neighborhood's children was kidnapped as a part of an organ-trafficking scheme, he kills one of Master Fathy's men and rescues the lone survivor. He and Ghagary find themselves a part of a long chase to find Master Fathy.
Ali believes his late girlfriend's soul has been reincarnated in a goat. His mother forces him to visit a spiritual healer, where he meets Ibrahim, who suffers from severe depression and hears mysterious noises, in a way to find hope, Ali, his goat and Ibrahim head on a trip across Egypt hoping to help each other overcome their problems.
For over 4000 years, the Sphinx has puzzled all who have laid eyes on it. What is this crouching lion, human-headed creature? Who built it and why? To unlock its secrets, two teams of scientists and sculptors immerse themselves in the world of ancient Egypt — a land of pharaohs and pyramids, animal gods and mummies, sun worship and human sacrifice.