Clash
Cairo, summer of 2013 – two years after the Egyptian revolution. In the wake of the ouster of Islamist president Morsi, a police truck full of detained demonstrators of divergent political and religious backgrounds roams through violent protests. Can the detainees overcome their differences to stand a chance of survival?
“Riots are scary enough, but being locked in a police van in the midst of a riot ups the ante. So Mohamed Diab was asking a lot when he put his cast through the harrowing sequences of Clash, the director’s much-anticipated follow-up to Cairo 678, yet the full-on immersion has frightening potency on- and off-screen. Set in 2013, just after the Egyptian military toppled the Muslim Brotherhood government of Mohamed Morsi, the film is entirely shot from within a paddy wagon, where pro-army supporters and Brotherhood members are thrown together in suffocatingly close proximity. Boasting superb camerawork from d.p. Ahmed Gabr and stellar crowd direction, Clash might strike some as crossing too often into hysteria, yet this is bravura filmmaking with a kick-in-the-gut message about chaos and cruelty (with some humanity).”
Jay Weissberg
97'
2016
Khaled Diab
Mohamed Diab
Ahmed Gabr
Ahmed Hafez
Arte France Cine´ma
Emc Pictures
Film Clinic
Niko Films
Sampek Productions
Ahmed Dash
Ahmed Malek
Aly Eltayeb
Hany Adel
Husni Sheta
Nelly Karim
Tarek Abdel Aziz
Valladolid Film Festival - Best New Director – Best Photography
22nd Festival on Wheels
World Cinema-2016