Each year at the Film Festival I try to avoid the comedies and the American and English movies, and some of the Australian movies if I know they'll get a release anyway. Instead I use the limited time and tickets to head towards the low budget horror flicks, Asian cinema and particularly Middle Eastern cinema. The goal here is pretty simple - try to find out more about what is happening in the world around me, from the perspective of those who are there and have something to say. Despite the rise of social media as a way of getting the stories out to the rest of the world, it still takes a fair bit of effort to really understand what is going on in some of these places and I must say I don't really make the time to do it regularly. So the Film Festival is one way that I can gain a deeper understanding. Two films so far this festival have achieved that to different degrees.
One of those choices I made for that reason was to see "Bethlehem". Not a religious movie at all, it is set in Palestine and looks at how the Israeli Secret Service is activating people in Palestine to spy for them to try to stop further acts of terrorism. The trouble is that there is still so much division between the Israelis, Jews, Arabs and more radical Islamic groups. Even though there is a Palestinian National Authority which rules the West Bank, the Hamas group has taken the Gaza Strip and continue to fight both the Isrealis and their 'own' people in the PNA.
The movie sets up with establishing the relationship between Israeli Secret Service agent Razi and young Palestinian teen Sanfur. Sanfur has become a 'collaborator' in jealousy of his older brother Ibrahim who is a leader of the Martyr's Brigade which is undertaking suicide bombings in Jerusalem. Razi has been getting close to Sanfur in an attempt to gather intelligence on Ibrahim who they are trying to shut down but he has gone into hiding. Ibrahim is planning something big when the film opens but Sanfur doesn't know much....or does he? Razi discovers through other agents that Sanfur has been transferring money for Ibrahim and lying to Razi. This is a blow but he determines to use it to flush out Ibrahim while trying to protect Sanfur with whom Razi has become too close. Events then begin to accelerate and the stakes increase and Sanfur begins to be torn apart by the pressure of hiding his spy activity and helping his brother and making his father proud of him.
The thing about Bethlehem is that it is a very well written, authentic film with a lot of tension and strong acting. But it keeps the focus in very tight on these characters and therefore you don't really get a solid understanding of the political factors and the motivations behind either side. So it didn't really achieve my goal of understanding the conflict but it did give me a feel for what day to day life must be like in these areas where there is so much violence and conflict. It is a great film and the ending is absolutely devastating - in the screening I attended on Friday night, the film ended and the screen went black and there was an audible "oh" from the audience which signified to me that most had not expected it could end that way. No Hollywood happy endings with things wrapped up neatly here at BIFF! Bit like real life!
The second choice I made for this reason was to see "The Square". The Square is a documentary unlike the fictional Bethlehem. This film was amazing and deserves to be more widely seen than it was and than it will be. It is screening again this Sunday 24 November 2013 at 12pm so if you are interested in this sort of thing, I'd recommend you get along.
The film follows the events surrounding the revolution in Egypt which occurred in 2011 when the people of Egypt decided they had 'had enough' of the military regime ruling Egypt. Egypt had been under "Emergency Law" since 1967 (apart from a small period in the 80s) and under the rule of Hosni Mubarak since 1981 - an unprecedented 30 year reign with no end in sight as he was grooming his son to take over when he was ready to retire. The issues that people were angry about included the lack of free elections, no free speech, police brutality (secret police regularly arresting and beating anyone who spoke out), corruption of the government and army, economic conditions such as low wages, and just the emergency law conditions in general.
In early 2011, a series of mainly peaceful protests began which we see first-hand through a camera crew following an intelligent young revolutionist, a well respected Egyptian actor, a singer who became the voice of the revolution, a girl seeking more rights for women amongst other justice issues, and a man who is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood religious group. This mixed group of friends are well involved and we see fascinating footage of them gathering more people to their cause and how they use unity across different religions (Christian, Jew, Muslim) and political views as their tool of protest. The action all takes place in and around Cairo's Tahrir Square which often hosted millions of protestors. While largely peaceful, there were several violent clashes which look to have been escalated by the armed forces to using live ammunition on the people. In the first revolution, at least 846 people were killed and more than 6000 injured. In February 2011 they got their way and Mubarak stepped down, appointing the Supreme Council of Armed Forces to run the country for six months. However, our revolutionaries notice that nothing has really changed despite the announcement of a free election in June 2012, and so the protests start up again, at first peacefully and again becoming more violent as the days drag on. The problem is that there will only be 2 parties in the election - the military who had effectively already been ruling (badly) and the new party started by the Muslim Brotherhood. Not much of a choice.
The acquittal of Mubarak from charges arising from being complicit in the murder of the original protestors starts a new protest and an interim government is appointed until the elections. The election brings the Muslim Brotherhood into power in both the parliament and as the President of the country. The problem is that the Muslim Brotherhood has some fairly strong views on religion and with only 51% of the vote, they are far from having the support of all people. In time, nothing has really changed, there is no new constitution, no raising of the emergency law and in fact, the leader Mohamed Morsi votes himself extensive new powers and makes himself virtually a new Pharoah. This stirs the protestors again, who gather regularly to call for the removal of Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood and installation of real democracy. In July 2013, Morsi is removed in a coup and a civilian installed as interim president. However, to this day the military still effectively rule and not much has changed, and in fact there are more issues due to the pro-Morsi groups who continue to protest and fight against the other revolutionaries to reinstate Morsi to power. Violence against the people continues by the army and by each other.
As you can see from the above, there are a lot of big issues in Egypt and although the main events did make the news here, before seeing this doco I had no idea how frequent the protests were (on an almost daily basis over weeks and months, and in 4 main blocks) and what they involved. The injection of the Muslim Brotherhood into the previously secular protest movement certainly seemed to derail it quite a bit without improving the situation markedly. What amazed me were the scenes were citizens were arguing with the protestors about why they didn't need to protest because everything was fine. Clearly everything was not fine when you see the shocking footage of the armed forces firing on unarmed (apart from a few rocks) citizens or driving over them in tanks and vans. Yes, there is some footage in here that some will not be able to tolerate and certainly made me gasp out loud at how brutal it was.
The best thing about this film is that it depicts both the personal and the bigger picture successfully. You get a good understanding of what has happened to date, with the personal impact to make you really care about it. I just wish there were some solutions or some way to help. All I can do for now is reflect on what a lucky country this is and how we need to continue to ensure that we maintain our democracy and freedom of speech so that this never happens to us. Maybe if more people watched this (along with perfect doco partners "The Reluctant Revolutionary" which portrayed the so-called Arab Spring from Yemen's point of view, and "Mugabe vs the White African" which shows what non-free elections will do to a country with a terrible dictator in power). Essential viewing.
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