As I Want

  • Samaher Alqadi
  • Egypt, Norway, France, Palestine, Germany
  • 2021
  • 88 min
  • Dutch Premiere
  • Best of Fests

In January 2013, two years after the popular revolt on Tahrir Square, an explosion of sexual violence sparked rage and protests. It looked like the beginning of a new Egyptian revolution, this time for women’s rights. But eight years later, the battle is far from over.

As well as filming the protests themselves, Samaher Alqadi captures scenes from daily life on the streets, where people respond to her not wearing a headscarf with a shocking barrage of sexist comments and ultraconservative views. In addition, her pregnancy prompts her to reflect on her youth and what it means to be a woman in the Middle East.

Alqadi also appears in front of the camera, filmed in black-and-white, appearing by turns vulnerable, emotional, outraged, or combative. In voiceover, she addresses her deceased mother. Archive footage of the 2013 protests is interspersed with domestic scenes and interviews at the home of the filmmaker herself or of girlfriends, sisters, and other family members. Photos from her youth and family films illustrate and painfully spotlight the ever-growing limitations placed on the freedom of Egyptian women.

Credits

  • 88 min
  • color / black and white
  • DCP
  • Spoken languages: Arabic
  • Subtitles in: English
Director
Samaher Alqadi
Production
Karim El Hakim for Prophecy Films
Co-production
Nefise Özkal Lorentzen for Integral Film AS, Jørgen Lorentzen for Integral Film AS, Serge Gordey for Temps Noir, Mohanad Yaqubi for Idioms Films, Thomas Kaske for Kaske Film
Cinematography
Samaher Alqadi, Karim El Hakim
Editing
Gladys Joujou

IDFA history

2021
Dutch Premiere
Best of Fests
2017
Supported with €15000 for Classic: Production & postproduction
2018
IDFAcademy Summer School Editing

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IDFA history

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