CLASH (Eshebak) (Mohamed Diab 2016)

[Chris Knipp]

US release by Kino Lorber begins Friday 25 Aug. 2017 in NYC at Village East Cinemas.

PREVIEW



TRAILER

Mohamed Diab's intense microcosm of today's Egypt

Clash ( إشتباك Eshtebak), Egyptian writer-director Mohamed Diab's explosive new film that opened Cannes 2016's Un Certain Regard series and was Egypt's Best Foreign Oscar nom, focuses - exclusively - on a day inside a police paddy wagon in Cairo in 2013 during the police-Muslim Brotherhood riots - the precise moment when Morsi's presidency had collapsed and al-Sissi's military regime was taking over. Following 678 (ND/NF 2010), Diab's powerful "issue" film about the sexual harassment of women in Egypt, particularly on busses, which permanently changed awarenesses in the country if it did not change male behavior, Diab became an intense participant in Egypt's 2011 revolution, in which Mubarak's 30-year regime was toppled and the country was full of hope. Then, six years after 678 (or Cairo 678), at the very moment when that hope collapsed, not waiting for quiet contemplation but plunging into the hostility and conflict that were raging, Diab and his brother Khalid made another, even bolder, more powerful and ambitious film. Clash is a tour de force - an impressive combination of technical virtuosity, socio-political commentary and basic drama. In this film, a group of today's Egyptians of all persuasions are forced together in a closed place and shaken to the core, physically and mentally, forcing them - perhaps - to find some universal humanity. The premise, aside from the technical challenge, appealed to Diab because it enables him to present all points of view. He does not take sides. With this movie, Mohamed Diab bids fair to take a place for himself on the map of world cinema.

[The rest of the review comes Thursday.]

Short interview with Mohamed Diab: "a wakeup call. . . that poses the question. . . about basic humanity. . ."