Winter Of Discontent

Screening Dates:
Fri 13 September 6:15pm
Tue 17 September 6:15pm

In Arabic with English subtitles

Director: Ibrahim El-Batout
Starring: Salah Hanafy, Moataz Mosallam, Amr Waked, Farah Youssef

As Egypt is again plunged into political turmoil and the violence that invariably accompanies it, the release of this tale of police brutality following 2011’s uprising in Tahrir Square has a particular resonance.

Anti-Mubarak computer expert Amr (Waked, Syriana) is arrested and assigned to government security officer Adel (Hanafy), a man who takes pleasure in finding increasingly ingenious ways of extracting information. While Amr is undergoing harrowing bouts of interrogation, his mother dies, and his once-supportive journalist girlfriend Farah (Youssef) effectively changes sides to become a state television announcer, leaving him feeling empty, betrayed and fearful.

Redemption of sorts comes towards the end of writer-director Ibrahim El-Batout’s powerful, unflinching film, but Western audiences will be most impressed, if not shocked, by its brave representation of torture as part of the judicial process.