Egyptian Arabic

In Madame Nadia's kitchen, Karim brings the date the restored house opens and Madame Nadia the date that comes first, Grandma's ninetieth: the day and the month, and in, after and before with a season, a month or a holiday.

Grandma refuses a party for her ninetieth and gives in on one condition, the pastry is hers: saying someone's age, at ninety, and the wish for a hundred that goes with every birthday.

At the doorway of the building in Heliopolis, Leo invites Sayed and his wife to Grandma's ninetieth the formal way, and Sayed, who was coming anyway, brings the chairs: a formal invitation and its answers.

In Karim and Mona's flat, hours of documentary footage and one clip of Grandma talking over the pastry: linking two actions in time with when, after and before, and while with a verb.

At the pastry shop in Heliopolis, Leo orders the cake for Grandma's ninetieth and learns what goes on it, the full name with its title: the titles Cairenes give one another, Madame, Mister and engineer, on paper and aloud.

In the kitchen in Maadi at night, Salma cuts Leo's three pages down to one story: the shape of a word at an Egyptian table, asking the room's leave, one story, the wish, and sitting down.

In the flat in Heliopolis, Mona holds Layla and Madame Nadia corrects Leo's wish: the birthday wish and the answer each wish has, in the right gender.

The kitchen of the old house at seven on the morning of the ninetieth: Grandma at her oven, Leo come to help, Uncle Mahmoud at the door with the cousins from the Delta; the host's words, the guest's answers, and the pet names of a table.

At Grandma's table, Uncle Mahmoud gives the first word in the family's name and hands it to Leo, who stands and says his two words: handing over the word at a table, and the plural you to a room.

Karim plays the clip on the television and the birthday girl answers it standing: thanking from the heart, thanks to someone by name, and ending on a proverb from the village.

In the kitchen in Maadi, Leo's residence runs out in March again and Salma says to apply for the permanent card: for good, the papers it takes, and three months of queues.

At the passports office window downtown, the officer asks the grounds, the notice on the wall lists the documents in Standard Arabic, and every office word gets its plain Cairene twin.

At a certified translation office downtown, the clerk fills in Leo's form aloud and Leo introduces himself in five sentences: name, nationality, profession, eight years in Cairo, married with a daughter.

At the kitchen table in Maadi, Salma lays out every paper of the file and checks it with Leo: copied, certified, stamped, translated, signed, paid, ready, and the photos in which nobody smiles.

In the kitchen in Heliopolis, Madame Nadia checks Leo's application box by box: the applicant's name in four parts, place of birth, address, and the Standard Arabic the form speaks.

At the passports office, the officer takes the complete file, fingerprints Leo and gives him a receipt: the application is decided within ninety days, in Standard Arabic, and the plain come back with this receipt.

A video call from Chicago at the Heliopolis table: Leo's mother asks whether the card means they are not coming back, his father whether it is really for ever, and Leo relays every question and answer both ways.

On the stairs in Heliopolis, Sayed asks what the papers are for, says that people leave and Leo stays, and reports that Layla said good morning to him properly; Leo closes the subject lightly.

At the office window, the card is ready: sign here and here, the Standard words printed on it, a thank-you speech cut short by the officer, congratulations, and Next!

At the family table in Heliopolis, the card lies on the tablecloth: Karim's word about a man at the airport with no words, Grandma's now you are completely ours, and Leo's three sentences, which come to four.

At the workshop in al-Darb al-Ahmar, Mister Fathi sets the opening of the restored house, the Thursday after Sham el-Nessim at six, and Leo asks for two things the formal way: could we have the courtyard the day before, could I connect the pump.

In Leo's studio, Ramez the apprentice and Leo choose what the visitors will see at the opening: six things in one hour, the ceiling of the hall, the door of the courtyard, and Ramez's lattice screen of the second floor, last, because the last thing is the one people remember.

A week before the opening, Ramez wants his lattice screen taken off the programme: his hands don't listen.

In the kitchen in Heliopolis, Madame Nadia reads the speech Leo wrote for the printed programme while the Announcer reads the invitation: the honoured attendees, the restored house is a historic monument.

The morning of the opening, in the courtyard: the fountain isn't running, the workshop's electrician is sick till Sunday, and Leo takes it on himself, let me, I have my tools, on my responsibility, forty minutes with Mister Fathi next to him.

Karim and Mona set up to film the opening in the courtyard: two microphones, both the speech and the neighbours, not only the hall but the rooms too, whether the speech or the mistakes.

Leo's parents are in from Chicago, and in the flat in Maadi Leo stands between his mother and Grandma, translating: she says you look well, translate word for word, tell her I've changed, I'm ninety, pickled lemons and not on an empty stomach, that's hard to translate, I'll say a gift.

The night before the opening, in the kitchen in Maadi, Salma times Leo's speech and Grandma listens: three and a half minutes, too long; don't explain, say; speak the way you speak to me; the craftsmen, the neighbours and the family, then silence; tonight the house opens its door, and that's all; and say nothing after it.

The courtyard of the restored house, six in the evening: Leo gives his speech, good evening everyone, allow me to present the house, thank you all for coming, the house opens its door, come in; Grandma cuts the ribbon and says the house is yours, mind the step; and a journalist asks what the hardest thing was.

Leo and Salma have seen his parents to their gate at Cairo airport when a young traveller with a backpack asks him, in three words of Arabic, where the taxis are.