"An Enemy Of The People: The Journey to Survival”

2014, 55 Min., Arabic with Engl. subtitles

With Nora Amin, Director of the Lamusica Independent Theatre Group

(Veranstaltung auf Englisch!)

"An Enemy Of The People", a documentary film by Ibrahim Ghareib on the most popular theatre production in post-revolutionary Egypt and during 2013.
The film tells the journey of an independent theatre company who decides to make a very provocative play (based on Ibsen's text) addressing the issues of democracy, the corrupt regime, the rule of the majority and the manipulation of the crowd. The creation of the production and its premier happen under the rule of Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, and while many questions of identity and challenges of survival are rising. The film shows different moments and contexts of performance through the whole year of 2013, under tear gas bombs or gunfire, or during months of curfew, or steps away from violent confrontations in Tahrir square. It clearly traces the narrative line of the theatre production which transforms in performance, interpretation and reception in relation with the political transformations of Egypt, yet it also shows how an independent theatre group grows against all the obstacles, and how it explores its new political and artistic role while struggling for survival. "An Enemy Of The People: The Journey To Survival" is a story about theatre as a tool for survival and change, and how a group bonds together to have impact, and how it connects with the audiences. The story of Lamusica Independent Theatre Group, of twenty men working under the leadership of one woman: Nora Amin.

Director: Ibrahim Ghareib
Composer: Nader Sami
Produced by: Lamusica Independent Theatre Group

Nora Amin is the founder of "The Egyptian National Project for Theatre Of The Oppressed" and its Arab network.
Leading a career in literature, dance and theater since 1993, Nora Amin has been an active part of both the independent theater scene and the new writing in Egypt, and is considered now one of the key figures of the new Egyptian theatre since her directorial debut in 2000.She started her professional stage career as a professional dancer and a founding member at the modern dance company of the Cairo Opera House (1993/94). Then moved to work as an actress in lead roles at the Hanager arts center till 2002. In 2000, she founded her own independent theater group in Cairo, "Lamusica", and expanded her work to the international scene as well.
She is instructor to the first storytelling workshop for women victims of the civil war in Sudan in cooperation with SIHA network, and the author of “Theatre for change: from the internal to the external” 2007. She won several national and international prizes in writing and has contributed in founding an arts management department at the Academy of Arts in Egypt. She was the artistic director of the first international independent arts festival, “JADAYEL” in 2002, taught acting and physical expression around the world and toured with her performances in 20 countries while contributing to international collaborations and creating festivals and artistic encounters in her country.

Men* are wellcome