Confronting Violence and Terrorism

The 28th Cairo International Film Festival featured Italy this year, but a German film also ran in the competition for the Golden Pyramid. Frederik Richter was at the premiere of "Blackout Journey".

photo: Goethe Institute Cairo
Scene from "Blackout Journey", Germany's contribution to the festival

​​The German film Blackout Journey celebrated a successful world premiere at the Cairo International Film Festival with its exploration of political violence and its effects on the individuals caught up in it. Two brothers lose their parents in a terrorist attack at the Vienna airport and are brought up separately.

Twenty years later the two brothers meet again, and each is confronted with the way the other has dealt with the death of their parents: Mio (Marek Harloff) is a chaotic rock musician in Berlin who dreams of having his own sound studio; his brother Valentin (Arno Frisch) grew up on a farm in the Austrian Alps.

Mio shows little consideration for the people around him; Valentin feels more comfortable with animals than with people. He suffers from a split personality as a result of the psychological effects of the terrorist attack.

A current topic in the Middle East

Blackout Journey is a fast-paced road movie through the Austrian Alps, which does not even take the time to tell us about the difficult encounter between the two brothers. The role of Stella, Mio's girlfriend, who accompanies the brothers on their trip and stands between them, is too dominant.

Despite this weakness in the script, the direction of Siggi Kaml and the imaginative camera work are very impressive. Raimund Maessen, the author of Blackout Journey, said that he had worked together with experts for four years in order to realistically portray in the film the psychological impact of a terror attack.

Blackout Journey explores a subject that is very relevant in Egypt right now, but one that is seldom discussed. "The film explores the consequences of a terror attack; it is the first time I've seen that here in Egypt," said Ayman El-Nouby, an employee of the cultural center in Cairo. "Here they are only interested in the perpetrators."

Only a few weeks ago the first terror attack in seven years occurred in Egypt. Thirty-four people died in the bomb attacks on tourist sites on the Sinai Peninsula.

After the German film promotion authorities turned down several requests to provide funding for Blackout Journey, producer Alexander Voigt still wanted at all costs to show the film abroad. "This is an important topic in Arab countries and in the entire Middle East."

Despite the gravity of the subject matter, Ayman El-Nouby had to smile when he recalled Blackout Journey. The scene in which the brothers are in the Alps on their way to Vienna, stop to ask for directions at an inn, and receive four different routes from four elderly gentlemen reminds him of chaotic Cairo. "That always happens here when you ask for directions."

No American or British films

This year the 28th Cairo International Film Festival featured Italy. Eighteen films were shown in the competition for the Golden Pyramid from November 30 to December 10. The Cairo film festival ranks among the most significant film festivals, but this year it was poorly organized and met with little response.

The program was only made available after the first films had already been shown. Important Egyptian filmmakers like Youssef Shahine chose to show their latest films at festivals held at the same time in Dubai and Morocco.

"This year suffered from poor organization," admitted Mary Ghadban, who has served on the organization committee since 1976, with a touch of self-criticism. "And the movie theaters were too far from another; it was hard to see many films."

According to a few press reports, British and American films were excluded from the competition – allegedly because of the war in Iraq. "We didn't receive the films," protested Ms. Ghadban, referring to festivals like Cannes and Berlin with which Cairo simply cannot compete.

Sherif El-Shoubashi, president of the festival, also dismissed such reports. "There were not enough noncommercial American and British films." He admitted, however, that the program came out too late.

"Several films arrived in Egypt very late, and we did not want to print the program before we had them in our hands." Otherwise he was satisfied with this year's festival. "The opening was very successful, and this year we managed to keep filmmakers from withdrawing their films at the last moment."

A place of freedom

Also in the competition was an Egyptian production that deals with the same topic as Blackout Journey. In Girls looking for freedom by director Inaas El Deghedy, three young women from Egypt, Morocco, and Lebanon fly to France looking for the freedom that they have not found in their own societies.

Nicole Bardawil plays the young Lebanese Amal, who, like the brothers in Blackout Journey, is struggling with the psychological effects of personally experienced violence. Even in Paris she suffers from feelings of guilt and finds herself caught up again in new dependencies.

Like Mio on his trip from Berlin to Vienna, she realizes when she arrives in Paris that it is not the place that can free you from yourself and the past. "It doesn't matter where you are. You have to be free in yourself."

Frederik Richter

© Qantara.de 2004

Translation from German: Nancy Joyce

Cairo International Film Festival