The Latest at Goethe

The “Arab Spring” has reached Berlin. For some days this month, in the Arsenal Cinema, Goethe-Institut is showing some of the finest examples of Arab film. The Egyptian movieMicrophone, for example, dives in its own special way into the underground – and makes it visible. By Julia Gerlach

It begins with a hair-raising ride on a skateboard and, in no time, we are right there: in Alexandria. To be more exact, in a part of the Egyptian harbour city that hardly anyone knows: i.e. the underground scene. Ahmed Abdallah’s film Microphone caused quite a stir in Egypt. It is seen as a film that virtually predicted the revolution, for whoever sees Microphone will realise that this state of affairs is untenable. Young people in Egypt are in turmoil. They want freedom and are fed up with control by the state and harassment by the police.

InMicrophone the borders between feature film and documentation are blurred: “Most of the people play themselves. They are graffiti artists, skateboarders and hip-hoppers from Alexandria,” says director Abdallah. To make it easier for the viewers to find their way around in this unaccustomed world - underground culture has been almost invisible in Egypt up to now – the main character Khaled takes the viewer by the hand. He has just returned home after many years abroad and wants “to do something for culture”.

At first he plans to set up a studio for already established artists. Then he more or less stumbles over a few hip-hoppers and is almost run over by a skateboard. He is drawn ever deeper into the scene: there is the all-girl group Mascara, there is the female graffiti sprayer Aya and, of course, the boys on their skateboards who are always tearing around the harbour area. Above all, there are a dozen or so bands hanging around there, always on the lookout for a place where they can do a gig.

At the Festival of Youth, a special event organised for young bands by the government-backed Culture Office, they have no chance. “Make proper music and lyrics that aren’t so indecent and so critical, then you can take part,” says Mr Salah, the presiding official. The next attempt, organising an independent festival in a theatre, is thwarted by Mr Salah, and when the young people then decide simply to perform in their favourite café, the police arrive on the scene. All that remains for them is to scream their frustration into the wind on the harbour jetty. Microphone has no happy ending – at least not in the film.

Society creates problems

In reality the story did continue. The young people in the film were, for the most part, at the forefront of the revolution in February when President Hosni Mubarak was driven out of office, and Aya’s graffiti can now be seen everywhere in Alexandria. Egypt has become a freer country; at least, a little bit freer. “In Microphone I show people who want to live differently than the majority of society, and how society reacts to them,” explains Abdallah. “And it becomes clear that the repression and censorship by the government create only about a third of the problems that the scene suffers from. The rest come from society itself.”

The Film Censorship Authority is still working as before, and Abdullah does not think that the abolition of censorship is acceptable to a majority in Egypt. “The revolution has also loosened up society a little bit. Parents allow their kids to go on demonstrations. But that certainly doesn’t mean that the majority of Egyptians can put up with graffiti or hip-hop. Many demand censorship to protect society.”

Currently an extremely controversial issue in the culture scene is the discussion about the notorious “Black Lists”: artists who remained loyal for too long to Mubarak should be boycotted in future. “I’m against this, as everyone should have the right to their own opinion and have the right to change it,” says Abdallah. There is much to discuss in these days on the banks of the Nile. And in Berlin. For here too, on 22. June, there will be a high-calibre panel discussion revolving around the topic “Culture and Revolution”.