Crop
EGYPT, GERMANY / 2013 / English / Color / Blu-ray / 47 min
Directors, Script: Johanna Domke, Marouan Omara
Photography: Melanie Brugger
Editing: Johanna Domke, Emad Maher
Producer: Johanna Domke
Source: Jodoka Production
Fixed cameras record every corner of the offices of Al Ahram, Egypt’s leading daily. Together with the tales of a photojournalist, this footage reveals the media strategies of Egypt's past regimes. The image of Egypt cropped by these cameras is shattered by the revolution, a harbinger for new images to come.
[Director’s Statement] Marouan Omara and Johanna Domke met in Cairo in 2012—one year after the 25th of January Revolution. Both felt the inability of the medium in documenting a historical situation of such immediate political impact, and that such upheaval necessitates new forms of documentation as well as narrative expression. They decided to investigate the social and political impact images hold themselves, and this led them to deciphering the means of image production visible in the last 50 years of the history of Egypt.
Though their view on images is at the same time directed toward the future, patterns of representation repeat themselves in current events. Like other liberation movements in Tunisia, Syria, and most recently Turkey, the individual serves as a crucial source of media. However, any established power system uses equal expression of power and approved imagery. In this sense, the directors of Crop feel that their film is addressing a universal approach for dealing with power, and what images mean in this context.
Johanna Domke
Born 1978 in Kiel, Germany. Studied Fine Arts at the Royal Danish Art Academy in Copenhagen, Denmark and at the Malmö Art Academy, Sweden. Johanna Domke works in a cross-over space of art and cinema, using a structural and socio-political approach. She is currently attending the postgraduate program at the Media Art Academy in Cologne, Germany.
Marouan Omara
Born in 1987 in Cairo, Egypt. Marouan Omara studied photography at the faculty of Applied Arts of Cairo University and joined the Academy of Cinema Arts and Technology in 2006. He has recently been taking part in the cultural expedition “Arabia Off Screen,” and has participated in the Durban Talent Campus for young filmmakers.