Cairo Drive

MUSIC

AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

MUSIC

MUSIC

HORNS BEEPING

It’s flowing today…or I’m making it flow actually –

I’m driving pretty fast.

MUSIC

'Ghorza' is a stitch.

It’s like when you pass in between them, very squeezed.

HORNS BEEPING

Right here, what I did right now.

This is also another stitch.

I just wanna go!

It’s more of a video game.

HORNS BEEPING

HORNS BEEPING

HORNS BEEPING

MEN YELLING

QUICK HORN BEEPS

SLOW HORN BEEPS

HORN BEEPS

HORNS BEEPING

LAUGHTER

MUSICAL HORN BEEPING

QUICK HORN BEEPS

MUSIC

MUSIC

HORNS BEEPING

HORNS BEEPING

BUS HORN

Ya’ani we’re a highly communicative…

civilization, yeah.

Because you’ve gotta interact! I’m interacting with everybody.

where it’s extremely crowded

and the Law is not really that clear…

We could say about Cairo that…that…uh...

The human side of people

is actually so thirsty to come out –

it wants to come out, it wants to be.

LAUGHTER

VIDEOGAME THEME

MUSIC

AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

MUSIC

MUSIC

HORNS CHEERING

CHILDREN SINGING

One, two, three...

Red, red, red, red means stop.

Green, green, green, green means go.

Yellow, yellow, yellow, yellow means wait.

Anybody want some chewing gum?

QUICK HORN BEEPS

Sorry!

SHRIEK

SIRENS

SLOW HORN BEEPS

BANG

Sorry, sorry.

Oh my god.

So you have to always try and read what the person is doing.

I don’t get what this guy’s doing right now,

I think he’s coming back.

I think we should not be fighting anymore and I think...

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MUSICAL SIREN

MUSIC

LIVE MUSIC

Alright this is the best time to drive in Cairo –

at night.

I would never, never drive here!

I’d be putting my life and other people’s lives at risk –

they’ve got an invisible language, you know.

Flashing lights here means ‘I might kill you.

Stop. Or Go.’ You don't know...

and the constant hooting of cars, it’s their language.

It’s a chaotic city and everything kind of works.

MUSIC

MUSIC

HORNS BEEPING

LAUGHTER

HORNS BEEPING

LAUGHTER

CHEERING

CALL TO PRAYER

CHILDREN SINGING

MUSIC

It’s not at all where I want to be.

No idea.

I tend to want to go there.

He’ll now take you?

He’s going to show me the way.

So now, we have to show him that we can drive…

Right, here.

We’re getting my driver’s license.

It’s the second try,

I hope they’re going to at least let me go through –

and try the exam.

Because last time I didn’t even reach the exam.

I mean if I would have done the exam,

I feel confident that I would have passed.

You know, so I think the intention is what counts.

You know, the fact that we came all the way out here,

and showed our face, and…

So uh, yeah, I didn’t even do the exam –

no I’m very happy.

The picture is terrible though.

LAUGHTER

Yes, Kaw’s gonna start driving, exactly.

LAUGHTER

MUSIC

Where am I?

We are, parallel to the Nile.

I reckon, that we’re going to turn right here, no?

It’s pretty but…

MUSIC

MUSIC

SIRENS

We came over as a family,

we came over working for an American oil company.

We’ve been here for about 12 years.

We lost our daughter in a road accident.

We lost our daughter in a road accident. She was a pedestrian, out for the evening,

She was a pedestrian, out for the evening,

with some friends.

My daughter started to cross first,

she got half way across the road,

and saw that her friends had not followed.

She turned around to go back to her friends,

and didn’t notice the bus coming, in the fast lane,

with no lights on…

and speeding, and she was struck.

There was a policeman, standing near by.

Um, he picked my daughter up, and um…

and took her to the hospital.

Carried her in his arms, to the Al Salam hospital.

So –

I put the pieces together afterwards, of course,

but those were the circumstances that led to her being hit.

You always think there was something you could have done…

to change it.

She was a senior in high school,

way too young to be killed like this.

There’s no reason why people’s lives should be thrown away

and wasted in such a senseless way.

CRYING

HORNS BEEPING

CONTINUOUS BEEPING

LAUGHTER

Traffic is an issue, it’s a national issue.

Cars are more affordable,

part of it because public transportation is inadequate…

still!

You can’t design a city, basically,

it grows – it becomes.

Planners, they look at traffic –

they look at 2D maps,

and they draw lines no matter where they go.

The past, 15 years,

you see a growing network of highways and overpasses,

on top of Cairo –

very much fragmenting of course the city

and isolating drivers from pedestrians

and public transportation users.

It’s the chaos that we see all over Cairo.

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SIRENS