Presentation

      Cairo in the Fifties. Kayro Jacobi, an Egyptian Jew, is a prosperous film producer and director. At 35 he is already king of Egypt's popular cinema. He owes his flourishing career to the fortune brought by his wife Noma and to his first films' success. Loved by women and admired by his peers, Kayrp is nevertheless targeted by Egypt's xenophobic press and accused of propagating a a tarnished image of Egypt. Fascinated by American cinema, Kayro is delighted when Howard Hawks lands in Egypt in 1954 to shoot Land of the Pharaohs and he gets to participate in this exhilarating adventure. He has to return in haste to Cairo however when his two sisters disappear after being summoned by the police. Kayro Jacobi moves heaven and earth to try and find them, but in vain. Relations between Israel and the Nasser Regime are becoming increasingly strained and these are dangerous times for members of the Jewish community. Attacked on all sides, humiliated, his only ally is his wife, but Norma sinks into a deep depression when their baby is still-born. Fifty years later, in 2007, a novelist begins to investigate Kayro Jacobi's strange disappearance. When she manages to find some of his old friends, she gets to hear the story of Kayro the Magnificent and of his struggle. A glimpse into the life of an eccentric and fascinating man and the golden age of Egyptian cinema.

Paula Jacques
is the author of several novels published by Mercure de France, amongst which Gilda Stambouli souffre et se plaint and Rachel Rose et l’officier arabe in which she explores the comedy of human passions. She received the Femina Prize for Deborah et les anges dissipés.