Anxious People by Fredrik Backman is close to the beloved Adel Imam movie “Al Irhab w Al Kabab” in ways you wouldn’t think are possible. The two pieces of narrative centre around a hostage situation, which can appear very different from outside, but upon closer inspection, they’re both stories about being human.

How the Hostage Situations Came About

In the movie, the main character, Ahmed, played by the iconic Adel Emam, causes a commotion in the Tahrir Complex after no one was willing to help him transfer his kids to another school. A rifle was accidentally shot during that commotion, making everyone assume that Ahmed was a terrorist, and then all hell broke loose.

Similarly, in the book, it started as a bank robbery but then escalated to a hostage situation. The robber, whose name was never mentioned and is later revealed to be a woman, realised that the bank she was trying to rob was a cashless one. She runs to the nearest building to hide, only to find that she had crashed a viewing of an open house, and everything escalated from there.

The Parallels Between Characters and Plot

Ahmed was put in this situation in a comedic way and decided to take advantage of it. This formed a circle of characters around him that had something in common; all of them had been wronged in some way, and that’s what made them band together.

The viewers become immersed in the lives of each character and gain a deeper understanding of their motivations. The story is told very subtly, with hilarious moments interwoven with a touch of seriousness.

Anxious People takes a more serious tone to achieve the same thing. The reader gets a sense of the dire situation the robber was in; she only asked for the amount of her rent so she wouldn’t lose custody of her daughters.

The other characters at the open house, as well as some of the police officers who arrive at the scene, all see her vulnerability and not only sympathise with it but also relate to it. When they got to know each other, they decide to come together to cover for the robber and gained each other’s friendship.

Social Commentary on a Universal Level

What these two pieces of fiction really achieve is showing that sometimes people are pushed to the extreme by their circumstances, and how essential unity is at these times. Fredrik Backman and Wahid Hamed took to their craft in two very different places in the world to dramatise a reality they witnessed.