Ahmad Abdalla’s Microphone (2010) portrayed a young generation of Egyptians clearly no longer willing to put up with the oppression of the Mubarak regime and bent on change. The film was released on 25 January 2011, the day Cairo’s Tahrir Square filled with demonstrators and the Egyptian revolution officially broke out.
During the rebellion, Abdalla worked as a volunteer at the hastily created media camp. He collected images shot with mobile phones, edited them into reports and sent them on to international broadcasters. This is the direct style of amateur film art he uses in Rags and Tatters, a mosaic narration about what happened on the fringes of the revolution.
The protagonist of Rags and Tatters manages to escape from jail in the chaos. He roams the city where nothing will be the way it was again, looking forlorn. He is not like the rebellious kids from Microphone, who have everything to gain. He is one of the losers of the revolution.
Film details
- Country of production
- Egypt
- Year
- 2013
- Festival edition
- IFFR 2014
- Length
- 87'
- Medium/Format
- DCP
