The Tedious Tour of M

A young peddler, alienated in his community in Alexandria, started to scratch some surrealist tales. He founded a literary union for marginalized laborers, attracting talented workers in Egypt and other countries.Once he got to publish a story in a famous magazine, he was discovered by the high figures of the literary scene. They brought him to Cairo and found him a job in a prestigious cultural institution under the management of the minister of culture. Naguib Mahfouz described him as an Egyptian Kafka. In the roaring 1960s years in Cairo, Hafez Ragab was considered a revolutionary voice in Arab literature. But the alienation went on and he didn’t fit in the environment of the white-collar writers of the Capital. He returned to Alexandria, locked himself down in his house on the edge of the city, never went out for 30 years. Though he continues inspiring young writers in his hometown; from his voluntary seclusion, and even after his sad demise, right after shooting this documentary.