The challenge is to capture the light and dark contrasts of the city with fresh eyes— to create a visceral, immediate experience for audiences, immersing them in the sweltering heat and small alleyways.

With a distilled narrative and a closely attentive camera, the story offer up characters, often members of what might be called the struggling classes, who are humanized through their daily choices.

Using caressing natural light, early morning breath, orange tone for the city, dusty green for the in doors locations like the house of Amal.

Her best friend, Rania, is trying to raise money for an operation that will disguise the fact that she is no longer a virgin so that she can marry a wealthy, older man whom she does not love.

Amal seeks guidance in prayers to the Virgin Mary, but with few real possibilities left, she takes the only job she can find - in a hairdresser with low pay.

At one of her destinations, a high class brothel in an exclusive part of town, she discovers her sister Hanan working as a prostitute in order to support her child.

Neither desiring a loveless marriage like Rania's, nor wishing to end up destitute like her mother and sister, Amal decides that she must abandon her family and their difficult existence in Egypt to join the man she loves and take the risky journey across the sea to another life.