Clash
Director: Mohamed Diab
Egypt, 2016 110 min.
Written by Mohamed Diab, Khaled Diab
Cast: Nelly Karim, Hani Adel, El Sebaii Mohamed
The opening credits don’t end, yet the tension has already begun and doesn’t stop for the remaining 88 minutes. Mohamed Diab’s film Clash is a claustrophobic and heart-wrenching look at the Egyptian protests in the summer of 2013. Diab directed and co-wrote the film that has opened to critical success, being reviewed with “Un certain regard” at Cannes. The film takes place within one day amidst the protests and riots, all from the perspective of detainees trapped in the back of a police van. All fronts of the protests are represented, from the press, to the Muslim Brotherhood, to the secular supporters of the military. From parents to children, rich to homeless, all want change, all are affected, all are deeply entrenched in their political ideologies.
The opening shot of the film is of the inside of the van and for the rest of the film the camera never leaves the space. By rooting the camera inside the narrative space so strictly, Diab is able to fully immerse the viewer within the world of the film and mindset of the character, while also heightening the sense of claustrophobia. The viewer is witness to extreme brutality by rocks, bullets, fire-hoses, and tear gas, all these atrocities reinforced by the horrific physical and mental trauma they cause among the characters. Familiar imagery of police brutality and mob violence erupt onto the screen. From the very beginning any and all lines of moral righteousness and simplicity are evaporated. Even the soldiers, supposed agents of tyranny are painted with humanity via moments of comradery and collective fear also represented. This blurred morality is defined in the middle of the film, where a gunman kills the soldier’s lieutenant. He is immediately captured, beaten, and left for dead. The people within the van look on in horror, crying for someone to help him, the soldiers bitterly look away, while the captain calls the lieutenant’s wife to tell her that her husband is dead. The film is made up of situations like this where all leave angry and hurt, their pain and hatred the only factor of their unification.
There are a few instances of companionship among the divided factions of the van, as all share in a love of laughter, song and soccer. But, no matter how many times they are reminded of their shared humanity, their political ideologies separate them. Like the van itself these ideals and ideologies serve as prisons that each person is unable to break free from. The only thing the group is fully unified on is the revolution of 2011. They all believed they needed change, but it is the direction of that change that is the center of their conflict. This difference is thematically reinforced through the interactions of the children, one secular, one a strong supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood. The two talk of how they play as the military and Muslim brotherhood at their separate schools. But, who is considered the good guys and whom the bad vastly differs, like the game of tic-tac-toe the two play on the wall of the van. One an O, one an X, forever divided, yet still apart of the same game.
“I am willing to die for a cause, not a photo… Sometimes a photo is a cause.” With all the horror surrounding the group as they pass through riot after riot, the only footage deemed important by the journalist is not of the terror outside the van, but the humanity within. Something that would remind us of our own ability to connect and understand, rather than separate and destroy. The film attempts to show the extreme places our humanity can exist. It shows the conflict between entrenched ideologies that separate and innate goodness that connects. The film is no easy one, but that lends all the more power to its messages. A feature that is strong enough to make almost anyone re-evaluate his or her own ideologies and beliefs, I highly recommend the excellent Clash.
