“On some level—whether literal, emotional or spiritual—all the stories in Cairo are perfectly true. More concretely, however, I drew on a lot of different things when writing the script…the experiences of various people I knew who were living in the city, the huge store of mythology surrounding Egypt in general and Cairo in particular. I’m not sure where the idea of the genie in the hookah came from. Probably from sitting around smoking hookah. That just sort of leapt out and took on a life of its own.”

Cairo

Plus: Marc Bernardin at the Newsarama Blog.