28th Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival
The Visit
director: Nadia Mounier, Marouan Omara
original title: Azziara
year: 2015
running time: 43 min.
synopsis
An inspection team from the World Bank arrives in an Egyptian village a few years after the revolution to assess how the transformation of agricultural management has progressed since the political upheaval. All of the activities are, as required, recorded by a television crew. We watch a drainage channel being built and visit the local museum. Everything seems to be as it should. However, the documentary’s authors leave the camera switched on even after the television crew has finished their work. As a result, the official record includes behind-the-scenes views and the members of the television crew become just additional actors in the film. The carefully arranged scene becomes an absurdly active image with advertising overtones.DETAIL:
A reporter, wearing clothing that conceals all of her body except her face, interviews one of the local women. One detail is particularly worthy of attention: the front of her robe is embroidered with images of Western women wearing revealing clothes.
biography
In his work, the Egyptian photographer and filmmaker Marouan Omara focuses on capturing the events accompanying the transformations in his native country since the overthrow of the government in 2011. He initially received acclaim for his documentary Crop (2012), about the operations of the Al Ahram daily newspaper. The work of Nadia Mounier, a young Egyptian photographer who has received several awards, consists primarily of documentary photographs in relation to the issue of how an image and its meaning are represented.more about film
| director: | Nadia Mounier, Marouan Omara |
| cast: | Abeer Salah El-Din, Beshay Abdo |
| producer: | Mark Lotfy |
| script: | Marouan Omara, Nadia Mounier |
| photography: | Islam Kamal |
| sound: | Michael Fawzy |
