Microphone

Director Ahmad Abdalla invited

Anticipating Egypt’s youth-led January democratic revolution, Ahmad Abdalla’s story about Egypt’s long-supressed counterculture movement is set against the dense cityscape of Alexandria. The follow-up to his widely acclaimed debut, Heliopolis, the film tracks recently repatriated Khaled as he attempts to readjust to life in his hometown. Feeling alone and dispirited, he takes to the streets in search of something, anything, to connect to. What he quickly finds is a vibrant underground arts and music scene, long suppressed by the Mubarak regime.

Increasingly enthralled by this lively counterculture, Khaled decides to advocate for and promote the talents of his new, diverse group of friends. He believes supporting them will bring about inevitably positive change in a community stifled by a repressive government.

Real-life painters, graffiti artists, rooftop musicians, guerilla filmmakers, and break-dancing street performers fill Microphone’s Alexandria with the raw energy of youth, and Ahmad Abdalla once again proves himself to be an auteur on the rise.

Winner of numerous awards, including Best Arabic Language Film at the Cairo International Film Festival 2010, the film is an important contribution to understanding resistance against bureaucracy and tracing new changes in Egypt.

Print Source: Film Clinic, Mohamed Hefzy, mohefzy@film-clinic.com