Amal (2017)

Directed by: Mohamed Siam | 83 minutes | documentary | Starring: Amal Gamal, Nagua Said, Esraa Mamdouh, Hosny Swelam, Khaled Mahmoud

In 2010 and 2011, various authoritarian regimes in the Middle East fell like dominoes in what is now known as the Arab Spring. Although the movement started in Tunisia, the protests against Egyptian President Hosni Moubarak have become the symbol of Spring. The documentary ‘Amal’, by director Mohamed Siam, follows a 14-year-old girl who joins the protests and grows up in a country that is constantly changing.

We get to know Amal as an activist and outspoken teenager who can regularly be found in Tahrir Square, the hotspot of the ongoing protests against Moubarak. What immediately stands out is how smart and enthusiastic this girl is: she has a big mouth against the police and claims her place among a group of much older boys. As she urges her to go home because of the insecurity at night, Ama wonders aloud why it should be different for her as a girl than for them. She had always been there, hadn’t she? Later, after Moubarak’s resignation, we see a discussion between Amal and her mother, who is considering voting for an election candidate Amal believes is corrupt – after all, he held a position in Moubarak’s government.

The documentary follows Amal in the years after Spring, while Egypt is in full swing. Those who know the recent history of Egypt will know that between 2012 and 2013 Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood was president, and that in 2013 power fell back to the army (as it already was under Moubarak) in the person of General Abdel Fattah El- sis. However, these events only play in the background – the documentary avoids broad contexts and focuses on Amal and her family. In private images of birthdays, we see that in addition to being a revolutionary in the making, Amal is also just a teenage girl who likes to go crazy and is increasingly aware of who she is.

On television, we’ve seen a lot about the events in Egypt, all largely from a bird’s eye view: images of crowds demonstrating in the now famous Tahrir Square and speeches by wavering rulers and challengers who saw their chance. What the Arab Spring really meant for ordinary Egyptians, however, remained a great mystery. ‘Amal’ gives us an intimate sketch of how at least one Egyptian family experienced this turbulent period. Amal herself above all gives hope for the future: with leaders of her generation, Egypt can hopefully flourish again after decades of stagnation.