Abuse of a Revolution

A review of the film “Sarkhet Namla” starring Amr Abdel Geleel, Rania Yusuf and Ahmed Wafik, Directed by Sameh Abdel Aziz

The term movies, is short for “moving pictures” and cinema is supposedly a “moving” work of art. However, abusing a revolution to achieve the “moving” factor can result in a cinematic disaster.
Unfortunately, this is what director Sameh Abdel Aziz resorted to in his latest film “Sarkhet Namla” literally translated as Cry of an Ant. The film which was almost completed before the January 25th Egyptian Revolution had to be rewritten in order to incorporate the uprising. However, instead of enriching the film’s content, this move actually made matters even worse.

The film probes the reality lived by the Egyptian people before the revolution. It surveys a large part of this society that lives under the poverty line. It explores the manner in which these people’s dreams were crushed, how they lived life without hope, without tomorrow. How they were constantly crushed by unrelenting economic and political pressures.

It tells the story of Gouda, a contractor who was working in Iraq and was unjustly imprisoned there for some years before returning to his homeland, Egypt. He gets involved in political causes, is disgusted by the graft, yet winds up involved in shady deals. Meanwhile, his wife Wafaa (Rania Youssef), thinking he’s dead, is in the Gulf working as a dancer.

Director Sameh Abdel Aziz’s original ending was meant to be an open-ended, bleak finale, posing the question of “is there hope?” into the cosmic void. However, January 25th happened and Abdel Aziz found himself in a tight spot. So the answer was: take stock shots of the actual revolution and incorporate them into the narrative.

The idea might have worked if the film, meant as a satire on corruption, wasn’t so clumsily made and ineptly edited. The added footage felt forced and out of context and did not really reflect the spirit of January 25th revolution.

On the performance level, I have to say that I personally like Amr Abdel Geleel. However, I do think that his performance here is very forgettable same as the rest of the cast.

It is such a shame that the first Egyptian feature film to tackle the revolution has to turn out so badly but I have hope that when the dust settles, the revolution will be justly “portrayed” and not “abused” by filmmakers.