In a society suffering from misery, class struggle and societal decay, can money be the savior? Cairo 30 questions if poverty drives a person to be predator or prey in a crumbling society. The film follows three Egyptian university students in the 1930s: one is a leftist, struggling to fight against foreign domination and government oppression, another takes up yellow journalism, and another is devious and self-interested, constantly muttering the word Tuz, or “who cares!” How do these three deal with the injustice they live under? Do they submit to the status quo, adopt socialism, or indifference? Will they be able to face the corrupt pasha, or the mischievous misdemeanor facilitator, or the charming mistress who deserts her true love to find her way upward through leading an indecent life? And in the end, who will triumph? Salah Abou Seif’s sarcastic tone compels spectators to venerate his use of symbolism, whether through characters, objects, places and camera shots, transforming Nobel Prize Winner Naguib Mahfouz’s novel into a must-watch film noir. — HALA EL ZAHED