The true-life exposing of bureaucratic corruption seems at odds with elements that seem to have been snipped from other dark thrillers.

Second, ordinary citizens had turned left because they were sick of the bureaucratic corruption that had flourished under reform.

For six days in succession there have been street protests against price rises, bureaucratic corruption and the rapidly eroding value of the currency.

Cheap papyrus also facilitated the rise of an extensive administrative system eventually rife with nepotism and other forms of bureaucratic corruption.

Coupled with bureaucratic corruption, tax revenues dropped dramatically.