Cert 15
96 mins
BBFC advice: Contains a scene of torture
One of the most helpful PR companies to the everyfilm quest over the past three years has been PorterFrith. So I apologise to Sue and Lizzie for the tardiness of my review of Winter Of Discontent.
Sadly, however, my review disc wouldn't work in my laptop or our telly but, fortunately, I managed to save the day when I discovered that the movie was listed on Festivalscope to which I subscribe.
And I'm glad I caught Ibrahim Al-Batout's picture because it is arguably the most topical of the year.
The film recounts the Egypt uprising through the eyes of a dissident (Amr Waked), a TV presenter (Farah Youssef) and the head of state security (Salah Hanafy).
Intriguingly, the activist initially tries to avoid being involved in the 2011 protests against Hosni Mubarak because he had previously been tortured by the state security. Indeed, there are flashbacks to his barbaric beatings, authorised by the clinical Hanafy.
Meanwhile, Farah, after years of blindly chasing her ambitions, realises that her TV programme is effectively a mouthpiece for Government and can take no more.
We see little of the crowd on the streets but as the storyline develops there is a powerful backdrop of gradually noisier demonstrations in the background and Mubarak's TV speeches.
Having recently visited the former Stasi headquarters in Berlin, I found that Winter Of Discontent resonated loudly. As with the former East Germany, Egypt had become a society which was awash with distrust. Even neighbours and those thought of as friends were feared as potential informers.
This sense of a country turning on itself`from a host of different angles is captured with aplomb by Al-Batout and he is aided by memorable performances by his three lead characters.
Of course, such people provide a very small part of the jigsaw which has been Egypt over the last few years. In its final sequences Winter Of Discontent reminds us of the wider picture and harsh statistics which, sadly, grow by the day.
Laughs: none
Jumps: none
Vomit: none
Nudity: none
Overall rating: 7.5/10