veins of life

Danish anthro­pol­o­gist Chris­t­ian Suhr embarks on a jour­ney through Egypt and into the spir­i­tu­al world of the Sufis. Togeth­er with his Islam­ic friend Muham­mad, he meets numer­ous believ­ers for talks and films Hadra rit­u­als. The close­ness to Allah is often described as an expe­ri­ence of light and with this motif starts an impres­sive cin­e­mat­ic search for light. For the camera loves and needs the light: between a medium that is attached to real­i­ty and the spir­i­tu­al nar­ra­tives, the film com­mits an excit­ing bal­anc­ing act.  

Suhr reports on his own “enlight­ened” moment in a Chris­t­ian church. And asks if it could be the same light as that of the Sufis. Muham­mad says: there is one truth, one real­i­ty, one light - but it man­i­fests itself dif­fer­ent­ly.… 

Chris­t­ian Suhr is a film­mak­er and pro­fes­sor at the Depart­ment of Anthro­pol­o­gy, Aarhus Uni­ver­si­ty, Den­mark. During field­work in Egypt, Den­mark and Papua New Guinea, he has explored expe­ri­ences of spirit pos­ses­sion, psy­chi­atric ill­ness­es, reli­gious heal­ing, and how film can be used to approach unseen dimen­sions of human life. He is the author and direc­tor of the award-win­ning film and book DESCENDING WTH ANGELS about pos­ses­sion, psy­chi­a­try, and Islam­ic exor­cism (2013). LIGHT UPON LIGHT is the first film in a planned tril­o­gy with the Cairo-based film col­lec­tive Has­sala Films. Films: UNITY THROUGH CULTURE (2011), Freiburg­er Film­fo­rum 2013); NGAT IS DEAD (2009); WANT A CAMEL, YES (2006).  

Direc­tor: Chris­t­ian Suhr
Cin­e­matog­ra­phy: Chris­t­ian Suhr, Amira Mor­ta­da, Muham­mad Mustapha
Script, Edit­ing: Muham­mad Mustapha, Chris­t­ian Suhr
Pro­duc­er: Hala Lotfy

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