Synopsis:

Horror, mystery, and humanity meet in the magical realism anthology “Cairo For Beginners”, the first in a series of features focusing on the region’s big cities with small secrets. Jeddah, Beirut, Damascus, Sharqa, Baghdad, Ramallah, Dammam, Alexandria, Khurtoum, Amman… all have unusual stories and particular characteristics that can create a thread across several tales weaved into each feature from that city. In Cairo, a taxi ride rescues a “working girl” from the dangerous after hours of the city’s seedy districts. But there’s more to this taxicab than meets the eye. A bit earlier that night, a radio host presents a popular late-night show on the supernatural. He receives a chilling phone call from inside an abandoned manor by the Nile. The voice insists he’s living in the estate, even as the property has been labeled condemned and the county prepares to tear the place down. At dawn, a potato farmer leaves his rural home and heads to the capital to find the fabled Potato Farmers Cooperative. The city makes him nervous, but the farmer is desperate. His journey turns into an absurd nightmare as he gets lost in Cairo’s maniacal alleys. These are some of the stories that make up Cairo For Beginners, the opening chapter of a series focusing on the east’s unique cities.