The City (1999) Timeline Explained – Every Event in Order

Release, runtime and language

1999 · 105 mins · Arabic

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Directed by

Yousry Nasrallah

Starring

Roschdy Zem, Thibault de Montalembert, Sylvie Van den Elsen, Arnaud Viard, Charlie, Basma

Ali, a hopeful actor who chops meat in a government‑subsidized butcher shop and performs in a modest local play, defies his father's expectations and relocates to Paris. There he joins a community of undocumented Arab migrants, navigating precarious survival while pursuing his artistic ambitions. A profound, disorienting episode transforms him, a memory that only fully returns when he goes back to Egypt.