Omar Sharif stars as Ayoub ("Patience"), a millionaire who is suddenly overcome with paralysis when he enters the Cairo airport. After being led to a private room to rest a moment, he realizes that the paralysis is psychological and he must handle it in his own way. While on an upwardly-mobile path to amassing his fortune, Ayoub stepped over many of his virtues as well as his friends. He feels that the only way to reconcile what he once was with what he has become is to try to bring back his more innocent years, and write down his transgressions in a kind of confessional monologue. As time and events transpire, writing down crimes of the past implicates fellow criminals - and a journal meant to purge Ayoub of his guilty conscience suddenly is filled with sinister possibilities. This human drama is all the more interesting because it was Sharif's first Egyptian work after returning to his native land, and similar to Ayoub, Sharif went through his own bout of difficult adjustment - lending an added appeal to the movie in the eyes of his compatriots. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
