Feature Documentary
Total Budget
US $257,000
Confirmed Financing
US $158,000
Confirmed Financial Partner
-Jyoti Film
-GFF Development Fund
-AFAC
-Robert Bosch Stiftung
-IMS
-IDFA
-Beirut DC
Contact
kesmat@see-media.org
+201223990807
Bassam revisits and reconstructs traumatic memories of his father's political arrest in 1989, which had distractive ramifications on his family. Can an immersive experience into the memories of the past help them heal?
Abo Zabaal 1989 is a hybrid autobiographical documentary of Bassam, the director, and his journey as he shares with this film how he deals with the trauma that he and his family suffered through. At five years of age, Bassam engraved in his mind the morning that his mother woke him up to help her prepare a huge number of fish to take to his father in the Abo Zabaal prison. The events that happened in 1989 had consequences on the whole family. Bassam witnessed, heard, and felt events beyond his capacity to comprehend. Bassam's father comes out a changed man and leaves the family after a short time to live in Vienna. Bassam also explores the point of view of his mother, Fardous. She shares her unrecognised trauma and disappointment with his father while she carries the burden of her illness.
Bassam performs the reenactment using 16 mm film in an experimental distorted manner, giving the film a visual language and feel that are different from the present. The immersive experience also includes listening to audio tapes that his father used to send him when he left the family. They listen together for the first time in 25 years. Bassam’s journey of reconnection is interrupted when his mother passes away. He and his father attempt to deal with the past by visiting a forgotten piece of land owned by the latter. Then, together with Egyptian actor Sayed Ragab, Bassam stages a unique private performance to give a home to these painful memories.
My childhood was spent in a political-activist household that shaped me for life. My parents belonged to the socialist movement. Socialism and the struggle for justice and change in Egypt were the most important values to them. On the one hand, I felt proud that my parents were so engaged politically; on the other hand, it had a massive impact on us. We only discussed politics, and our feelings were always related to the political events happening around us. Even my parents’ friends shared the same ideas, upbringing, and political views. Our family life was secondary to a noble cause. What happened in Abo Zabaal Prison in 1989 and its consequences illustrate this struggle the most, having had the most profound effect on my life. It is a story I grew up with, and in which my family is still stuck. Revisiting the past would help bring us closer and find ways of healing. I will use the medium of film to create visual references for a history that has been lost, and will try to create from painful memories a path to a brighter future by allowing myself to use art as a form of healing and expression.
I got to know Bassam in 2008. He was working passionately on documentaries telling stories of social justice. During this time, I got to know that his drive to tell stories of the oppressed and voiceless stems from his own trauma and the legacy of his family. He's finally ready to share his own story. I admire how he exposes his own vulnerability and personal story while transforming painful memories into an artistic expression. What is particularly special in this project is its visual concept with the different layers and the immersive experience Bassam is putting himself through.
It's a personal story of family trauma yet it transcends beyond it. The film explores how we deal with memories and how family traumas have lasting effects.
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