“What do we need to do to have a better Egypt?” |
Riding the rails in El-Marg Direction
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Courtesy of Karim El Shenawy |
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Courtesy of Karim El Shenway CONGRATULATIONS: Karim El-Shenawy receives his first-place award at Al-Jazeera’s International Documentary Film Festival in Doha. |
Not many students at the American University in Cairo (AUC) use public transportation to travel to or from campus, including the underground metro. AUC student Tamer Abdel Aziz is one of the few AUCians who utilizes the metro each day and along the way he connects with Egypt’s other classes in a way he feels many other AUC students do not.
El-Marg Direction, a short documentary staring Aziz was directed and produced as a graduation project by mass communication students at Cairo University. The film has since gained international recognition for it’s commentary on Egypt’s class divide.
In addition to winning third place at Cairo University’s final contest, the film took home a golden award from Aljazeera’s National film festival in Doha, a competition for short films and documentaries, in 2007. It will also be shown in the Montpellier festival in France this November.
The 10-minute documentary features Abdel Aziz sharing his thoughts as the metro takes him through different stratas of the society. His journey begins at Sadat Station located in Tahrir Square, just outside of the AUC campus.
The whole trip spans seven Metro stations, with seven different tangents related to being both an Egyptian and an AUC student.
“The documentary mainly talks about the relationship between the rich and the poor in the Egyptian society, but not in a very pessimistic way because you can still see those very poor, very happy” said Karim El-Shenawy, the film’s director.
Audiences in Algeria, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine have also viewed the film, which the producers say gives it a good chance of delivering the message to a wider audience. It has also gotten more than 25,000 hits on You-Tube, the popular video website.
Many AUC students don’t really get to see how the other half of society lives, but through the metro one can meet all kinds of people, explained Abdel Aziz.
“The whole idea of the documentary came when Karim El-Shenawy [and I] were [sharing] a ride back to my place. I started telling him my thoughts of the metro and every stop and why it was named that way,” said Abdel Aziz.
The short film shows Abdel Aziz meeting and talking with people that don’t know anything about life for AUC students. Some even think female students walk around on campus in swimsuits.
These people also see the very poor areas in Egypt just as the metro comes out of its tunnel and sees the light.
Abdel Aziz said that this light doesn’t symbolize hope, but devastation and frustration, especially when he sees children and families living under bridges.
Though there isn’t really a documentary market in Egypt, short documentaries help t express a message in a small amount of time, said El-Shenawy.
“Maybe the film does not give an answer, but at least it makes its viewers think twice,” he added.
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