Marwan Hamed’s sophomore film was a radical departure for the director. An action melodrama starring Ahmed El Sakka – Egypt’s biggest action star of the 2000s – the film traces the ascent of a young hoodlum through Cairo’s criminal underworld. The hoodlum’s ambitions are thwarted when he finds himself dragged into a love triangle involving a fearsome gang leader – played by the late veteran actor Mahmoud Abdel Aziz in one of his most brilliantly chilling performances – and his childhood sweetheart (Hind Sabry from The Yacoubian Building).