date of publication:
23 July 2022 12:08 GMT
Update date: July 23, 2022 12:20 GMT
Egyptian director Marwan Hamed reviews the struggle of the Egyptian citizen during the British occupation of Egypt, revealing painful details and scenes, as well as stimulating ones during that period, within the historical drama of the movie “Kira Waljen” produced in 2022.
The story revolves around the historical Dunshaway incident that occurred during the British occupation of Egypt in 1906, and discusses the events that preceded and followed that incident, and the collective and individual popular reactions, through a dramatic itinerary that jumps between drama and history.
The work, through the dramatic line, sheds light on the suffering and sacrifices of the Egyptian man during the British occupation, and also portrayed the methodology of the English, the greatest power in the world at the time, in humiliating and subjugating the Egyptian citizen.
In the scenario, there are very special dialogues between the characters, which point to the difficulty of the labors that Egypt went through in order to achieve liberation from the British occupation that began in 1882.
The beginning was with an elaborate and brief pictorial scene regarding the Denshway incident, embodying the suffering of the Egyptian farmers during the occupation period, and showing the recklessness of the English soldiers, during a bird hunting trip between the farmers’ lands. Soon, an English gunshot caused the burning of the hay fields of a group of farmers in the mentioned village.
The following scenes revealed the depth of the injustice inflicted on the Egyptians during that incident, and before the 1919 revolution. The mixed moot courts imposed by the occupation forces on the Egyptian peasants, sentenced to death many of them and flogged many in front of their children, just because a British soldier died during the confrontation due to heat stroke.
The scene of execution and flogging tells the story of an entire people being subjected to injustice through English arrogance and tragic mock sentences. It goes back to the Egyptian and Arab memory of the time of the occupations that the Arab countries were subjected to, and simulates the contemporary occupation of Palestine by Israel.
Cruelty and slavery
In photography, we can read with different human dimensions, revealing the seniority of injustice and enslavement with flimsy pretexts, by organized groups that aspire to impose their control, perhaps out of evil, or economic and political interests.
The intertwined dramatic and historical events during the scenario show that the colonial tide was not on a day that called for good or the renaissance of poor peoples, but rather sought its pure interests, and proceeded to destroy man in order to increase the presence and dominance in the world.
The dramatic line of the characters also seemed uninterested in the details of the positive growth or escalation of each character, and did not focus on the idea of transformation, and dramatic curve changes, a contemporary way of presentation through which the director seeks to present a renewal.
We find the personality of Ahmed Abdel Hai Kira, who worked in a clever way to deceive the British, deluding them that he was a loyal friend and seeking to serve them, but he was seeking to serve the Egyptian poor, in the face of the occupation.
The lines of the dramatic character were not clear for a long period of events, and the character did not show details of goodness and heroism, but the plastic drawing of the character bore Western signs, which increased the glare of the character embodied by the artist Karim Abdel Aziz.
Kira had impressions and traits that indicated a gelatinous personality, such as constant sleep with shoes, and unjustified movement between places, and despite the apparent calmness of his features, but he was very riotous in secret.
As for the character of Abdel Qader El-Jin, who was embodied by the artist Ahmed Ezz, he carried a different dramatic voice. Through the scenes, one can pay attention to the frivolity of the jinn, his interest in women and the humor associated with his dialogues and movements with English soldiers and Egyptian citizens.
In dramatic moments, it shows the evil tendency in the formation of the character of the jinn, and in other moments it reveals the bright side related to his patriotism and his struggle once morest occupation, with great participation.
As for the character of Dowlat, embodied by the artist Hind Sabry, she is the struggling Sa’idiyya character, who conveyed the depth of the impact of Egyptian women in the revolution once morest the occupation, and demonstrated the partnership between men and women in confronting and resistance.
spaces
Common spaces between the characters revealed an individualistic self-side, amid that noise in the collective struggle with the occupier. Kira released his heart in his attachment to the English woman, despite his hidden fight once morest them, but his human affection, was not carrying hatred for every Englishman, but for those who fight him.
The events also revealed an affection that brought the jinn together with Doulat, who loved the jinn with all its contradictions, adventures, and bad behaviors.
The jinn is a personality like the ancient form of modern man, which carries contradictory characteristics, may carry more than one mental illness, and live within it more than one self..
And all this formation is due to the overlap between society and the individual in various ideas. The jinn waited for the decisive moment, to be a useful human being, as he carried his awareness of the rights of his people, in light of a real wandering that he was living.
This mixing of traits, and the merging of good and bad, made it difficult to clarify feelings towards her. Many scenes carried sympathy with Kira or Jinn, and others carried resentment to the extent that it is impossible to hate or attach to any character of them..
This approach is what contemporary art advocates. It is not advisable for the writer and director to make the character a beacon or a hell, until the idea of being influenced by the hero is abolished, but rather simulating the experience as an experiment and extracting exciting ideas in self-conflict with it.
And it appears in the photography and the directing tools, the extent of the valuable effort expended to present scenes in a long time, the details of which carried completely different tools, in terms of the shapes of houses, furniture and clothes, so the details accompanying the dialogues between the characters also speak of that era.
The accompanying sound effects succeeded in forming support for the characters and the event. In such a historical drama, music and other sounds are a way to drag the viewer to the right time and place.
This artistic assemblage of actors, a technical team, decorative tools, scriptwriting, and a director with the expertise of Marwan Hamed, made the film “Kira Waljen” a top spot for views in Egyptian and Arab galleries, and for evaluations on social media, which has become one of the brightest Arab historical films, in the modern era. .
