1. Home
  2. EGYPT FILMS
  3. BEFORE SPRING

BEFORE SPRING

ABL AL RABIE

By Ahmed ATEF

EGYPT FILMS - as PROD

Drama - Completed 2015

A young blogger who lost both eyes during the Egyptian Revolution recounts in flashback the story of the Spring that has finally come to his country. He tells how he and his friends were able to move a mountain. His insight, which often surpassed his ability to see, foretold the coming Egyptian Revo

Festivals
& Awards

FESPACO 2015
Eu award
Montréal World FF 2015
festicab 2015
Login to view all information
    • Year of production
    • 2015
    • Genres
    • Drama, True Story
    • Countries
    • EGYPT
    • Languages
    • ARABIC
    • Budget
    • 0.3 - 0.6 M$
    • Duration
    • 92 mn
    • Director(s)
    • Ahmed ATEF
    • Writer(s)
    • Ahmed ATEF
    • Synopsis
    • Egyptian bloggers and internet activists have, since 2004, played a significant part in the opposition to the regime of former dictator Mubarak. The ruling National Democratic Party fixed the parliamentary elections of 28 November 2010. It took 90 percent of the seats and wiped out the parliamentary opposition groups. The opposition established a shadow parliament which Mubarak only mocked. The Egyptian regime started to take a range of violent measures in preparation for the inheritance of power from father to son. Many presenters of political TV shows were stopped from appearing. A church was arranged to be blown up to distract the masses from making any criticism of the regime.

      Meanwhile, in Tunisia, a revolution had started as a result of Mohamed Bu Azizi setting himself on fire, an act imitated by a number of Egyptian men. Ben Ali had to flee, and the first chapter of the Tunisian Revolution ended in success. In Egypt, bloggers and internet activists decided to make 25 January the beginning of the revolution. Mubarak’s followers made fun of this, saying that you can’t set a date for a revolution in advance. But the anger, belief in the cause and boundless commitment of millions brought about a miracle. The Revolution began on 25 January.

      What was the final convulsion that lit the fuse of anger in the hearts of millions of Egyptians? What role did bloggers and internet activists play in channeling this dynamic anger into action that created the miracle known as the Egyptian Revolution? At the birth of the Revolution, the whole Egyptian people appeared to be in a state of disguise. The heroes of the film disguise themselves to escape the security forces, and they find other forms of external disguise around them. State Security officers become other people so as to spy and observe; members of Islamic groups like the Muslim Brotherhood hide behind their civic jobs; those enraged at the situation don a mask of indifference. The Revolution too came in disguise, its birth pangs turned into an eruption.


      The cloudy, unsettled, foggy weather is a key metaphor in the film. The female lead, Sara, is fascinated with plants and collects different types of soil, including soil from a cemetery which represents the material substance of people. Near the end of the film, she sows a seed in organic soil and the weather clears up. The seedling sprouts before the Spring, that is prematurely, and the Revolution erupts.


      The film opens in Cairo, indisputably the strangest and most fertile city in the world today. It is a public spectacle of all human nature and instincts. In the Cairo of 2010 we find strange and intimate creatures, making it full of the contradictions of humanity: from abject poverty to extreme luxury; demonstrations, political activity and chaos (in part positive); and the degeneration of popular taste. All of these found together at the same time. Polarization. Good and bad hand in hand; refinement and violence; love and hate. No other
Top
Contact us
© Cinando(2025).com
All rights reserved. 3.0.0.0 - SOIF