An episode of a radio show revisiting the life of an Arab music icon takes an unexpected turn when one of the callers refers to an “adult film” that she has allegedly starred in thirty years ago. While some claim to have seen the film, popularly known as “El Kotchina”, providing detailed descriptions of some of its scenes, others strongly believe that it was entirely constructed in the collective imagination of the Egyptian public through networks of rumour, gossip and hearsay. The subsequent conversations about the alleged film and the research journey they prompted reveal the complex political, social and cultural fabric that has shaped an entire society’s notions of sexuality, masculinity and censorship.