Een portret van de stad van de doden, een bewoond kerkhof dat zich als een levende schandvlek of slecht geweten aan de rand van Caïro’s publieke stortplaats situeert. Vertrekkend van de Dodenstad, toont de film de overvolle volksbuurten van Caïro in de greep van ellende en dreigende verlamming.
“I still ask myself how I was able to combine surrealism and social reality in this film. The great poet Ahmed Fouad Negm was then in prison, because the regime was displeased with his contestatory texts, and at the time one was imprisoned for no apparent reason. So, I followed his companion Azzam below the windows of the prison to pick up the poems Negm would throw through the bars of his cell. Cheikh Imam sang his poems to revolutionary students who gathered in the City of the Dead. It was exhilarating. We still believed we could change the world.”
Arabic / French spoken, English subtitles
Print courtesy of Cinémathèque Française
