The Egyptian Embassy in South Korea brought critically acclaimed 2006 film “The Yacoubian Building,” seen for the first time by the general public, to a local theater in Seoul on Friday.

Based on the 2002 novel by Alaa Al Aswany, “The Yacoubian Building” sketches comic yet heart-wrenching portrayals of the vagaries of the human heart.

“The Yacoubian Building” is a searing indictment of Egyptian society under now-deposed strongman Hosni Mubarak and his decades of oppressive and corrupt misrule.

The eponymous building is both a metaphor for contemporary Egypt and a unifying location, where the primary characters either live or work and where much of the action takes place. The film’s urbane characters occupy a universal narrative of the “big city,” which, at its core, is really a morality tale.

One such character and the film’s protagonist, Zaki, a wealthy and elderly roue, is rendered sympathetically by popular Egyptian actor Adel Imam.

Given post-revolution Egypt’s precarious balance over a chasm of truly horrible bloodshed that could engulf the nation at any time, the film’s bittersweet yet hopeful denouement becomes all the more promising, if not more wistful.

(ephilip2011@heraldcorp.com)