Alfilm Festival – “Our present is soaked by colonial structures”

The Arab Film Festival begins on Wednesday. You have curated the series Spotlight, which deals with (post-) colonial structures under the title “Canceled Futures, Endless Pasts”. Why is this topic now?

The starting point is a criticism of the idea that colonialism or colonial structures are something from the past. Our present is soaked by colonial structures that also influence the possible future and future ideas of the people in the region. Colonialism is seen as something of which has remained. We are trying to control it.

But it is also about imagining that there are alternative ways to shape the present and the future. We want to question a matter of course. Because what we are currently experiencing is no coincidence. Someone like Trump is not just a crazy one, an error in the system. It is the result of something that the system carries. It is also a criticism of the present that we show the Spotlight Genres such as magical realism, dystopias and utopias. It is time to see: what went wrong? And maybe a way is actually to imagine other worlds. I think the key word is imagination.

Interview

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Iskandar Abdalla was born in Egyptian Alexandria and is currently doing his doctorate at the Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies (BGSMCS). In his research, he deals with Islam in Europe, but also with topics that affect the film and cultural history of the Arab world. He studied history and nearby studies at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich and Islamic Studies at the Free University in Berlin. He has been working at the Arab Film Festival Berlin since 2015 and curated this year’s focus on “Canceled Futures, Endless Pasts”.

How do colonial structures appear in the present?

For example, if we take the political regime in Levant or North Africa, they were born from a decolonial moment at first glance. For example, with Nasser in Egypt, decolonialization was so to speak, so to speak. But at the same time there are continuities such as the laws of the federal states or the dependencies on investments from abroad. The global economic system brings new forms of exploitation, even if the region is apparently independent. Thanks to the seem, these structures continue to work that they are overcome. We want to start and ask what decolonial practice in the film means.

Does dealing with the colonial heritage in Arabic films currently play a major role?

The criticism of colonial structures in the films we show is not necessarily consciously or pronounced. I think the Spotlight topic is our pattern of interpretation, the glasses with which we read the films, so to speak. That was exciting. Because we usually have more older films than new ones, but this year most of them from 2023 and 2024. Many of them use magical and dystopian elements.

Is it a coincidence that magical realism plays such a big role in the program?

I don’t believe in coincidences. I think there is a deeper meaning behind it. There is a fatigue towards conventional narratives. In view of the many current crises, they somehow failed and cannot help us. But I believe that imagination can help us. It can be a means of self -authorization. Because if our present is so sluggish and hopeless, the only way is to free yourself and imagine other realities. We do not find ourselves with the current situation, but critically deal with her.

I personally have the feeling in view of the current reality here in Germany. I have the impression that I need something I can stick to: maybe the idea of ​​another world. Film and art are a way to revive and practice alternative imaginations. But I also believe that there is a practical aspect.

Which one?

For example, if we look at the film “Perfumed with Mint”: Egypt is a country with a very long and exciting film tradition and many new, young talents. But there is great financial pressure and dependence on funds from abroad – such as from the Gulf States.

For many Egyptian filmmakers under the pressure of censorship, the poetic can be a possible way out of political and social taboos to address certain topics in order to tell stories about fear, repression, hope and hopelessness that cannot be freely articulated in direct or conventional narrative forms.

How is the poetic and surreal in the films of the festival?

For example, at the “Perfumed with Mint” we don’t know what kind of world we are in: Is it a dream or a nightmare? We see that the future is a parallel present with its own rules. The dead continue to live as mint leaves on the bodies of their relatives – i.e. as plants. This is also very interesting visually. Because everything is very gray and dark, and the mint leaves are the only green.

Nature and ecological aspects are discussed in many of the films in the program. New types of relationship with nature or non-human are built up-whether to spirits or animals. “Agora”, for example, is like a dream with animals. You can see dogs in particular. The camera settings get the impression that the animals understand what is going on while people are lost.

The film “Silent Storms” can be read as the revenge of nature. A natural disaster breaks in there over a village, in which many acts of violence passed during the colonial era and in the civil war. It is a kind of fictional country in North Africa that resembles Algeria. The natural disaster can be read as a metaphor – the dead are woken up, the revenge. They take revenge because the future has been taken away.

What alternative realities are negotiated in the films?

The Palestinian documentary “Lyd”, for example, tells of the fate of the city of the same name over various times, i.e. during the British crew, the Nakba and in the present. Lyd is located in Israel, but has a large Arab population. Through animated sequences, the film tries to imagine an alternative past in the city: what if there was no colonialism? If the British hadn’t come to Palestine? If France and Great Britain had not agreed to share the Middle East? This approach to work with alternative future was the starting point for the Spotlight.

One of the few older films in this year’s Spotlight is “My name is not ali” by Viola Shafik from 2011. Why did you choose it?

I saw and thought this film in Berlin a few years ago: For me, this is the way in which film works as a decolonial practice. A forgotten character is taken into account and what is told. The film invites us to question naturally and shows us the downside of things. In this case, Germany, i.e. the West, is at the center. Like talking not only from the colonized others, but also turn our eyes in the other direction. Viola Shafik is an Egyptian-German filmmaker and film scientist. She portrays the main actor from the masterpiece “Fear Essen Seele on” by Rainer Werner Fassbinder from 1974. That was one of the first German films talking about migration. Shafik interviewed people who knew El Hedi Ben Salem. She travels to Morocco to understand how he came to Germany. I don’t want to spoil, but she reveals terrible things. The film shows that people who think it is good can reproduce forms of violence.

The Arabic Film Festival (Alfilm) takes place from April 23 to 30.