Abdo

Hassen Ferhani, Jakob Gross, Travis Wilkerson
Germany 2015 | 74 Min. | OmeU

Just like any teenag­er the young Egypt­ian Abdo is in search for his iden­ti­ty. One dif­fer­ence is, how­ev­er, that his coming of age hap­pens to be in the midst of the Egypt rev­o­lu­tion: a time of bloody hos­til­i­ties. Abdo finds his mis­sion in street fights and soccer sta­di­ums. On the Tahrir square he is a con­vinced rev­o­lu­tion­ist, while in the sta­di­um he joins the world­wide ultra-move­ment. But what hap­pens to the youth­ful striv­ing for change when there is no point in any­thing, the rev­o­lu­tion has come to an end and soccer is banned? Abdo also is an enthu­si­as­tic ama­teur film maker. His camera makes us wit­ness street­fights as well as his every­day life, show­ing home­less people, under­ground trav­el­ers or garbage col­lec­tors. His video diary gives the viewer insight into Abdo’s life, who grows up in the tur­moil of the rev­o­lu­tion. The impact of the Arabic spring on his indi­vid­ual story exem­pli­fies how
the rad­i­cal changes in soci­ety affect his generation.