Jarjoura, Katia
2011 Goodbye, Mubarak. Brooklyn, NY: Icarus Films.
Notes: DVD, 72 minutesReviewed 3 Aug 2012 by:
Mark Allen Peterson <petersm2@muohio.edu>
Miami University, OhioMedium: Film/Video Subject
Keywords:Mubarak, Muhammad Hosni, -- 1928-
Egypt - History - 1981-
Egypt - History - Protests, 2011-
Egypt - Social conditions - 1981-
Egypt - Politics and government - 21st century
Protest movements - Egypt - 21st century
Protest movements - Arab countries - 21st century
ABSTRACT: Goodbye, Mubarak is a straightforward, narrated documentary examining the tensions building in Egypt that led to the 20111 revolution. While there is little new information, the film does an excellent job of putting the social media aspects of the revolution in context, and of capturing the paradox that many Egyptians knew their country was on the edge of a revolution, yet no one actually saw it coming until they found themselves in the middle of it.
Perhaps the best thing about Goodbye, Mubarak is that it scarcely mentions social media in 76 minute account of the prelude to Egypt's Jan. 25th revolution.When many accounts refer to the Egyptian uprising as a 'Twitter Revolution' and the revolutionaries as the 'Children of Facebook,' Goodbye, Mubarak serves as a useful counter-narrative to remind people that the Egyptian revolution: 1.was a long time brewing, and2.involved many different groups, 3.only a few of whom were social media users, and 4.none of whom saw the revolution as imminent.
The movie describes itself as a "journey into the heart of pre-revolutionary Egypt." I don't know if I would go that far, but it certainly offers a coherent and fairly comprehensive account of the contexts that led to the Jan. 25th revolution.
The film is divided into six sections. The first part, 'Powder Keg,' begins with the 18 days in Tahrir Square, then flashes back to October 2010 to ask how and why the protests, which seemed to spring from nowhere, were engendered.
'Sham Democracy' explores the self-congratulatory, one-party political system, its security apparatus and its systems of censorship, flourishing under the Emergency Law. The film shows journalists blocked from covering a demonstration, then watching it snuffed out during the brief time they are allowed to watch it. The film follows an activist walking through working-class Cairo drumming support for demonstrations and soliciting signatures for petitions. We also meet opposition leaders Muhammed El-Baradei, Ayman Nour and Gamila Ismail.
In 'the New Politics' the film describes the liberalization of the economy and the movement of wealthy businessmen into leadership positions in the government and the NDP. The section focuses on Abul El-Enein, the ceramics magnate and member of parliament as he walks through his pre-paid election, and warns that labor demonstrations paralyze the economic progress of the country. The film contrasts his description of how business has been good for Egypt with film and statistics of Egypt's poverty.
This segues nicely to the section on 'Work,' which looks at the textile workers in Mahala al-Kubra, one of the centers of labor demonstrations in Egypt. Interviews with labor leaders reveal the extent of workers' poverty as privatization erodes pensions and benefits. The labor leaders emphasize their marginalization in the official political system and sense of helplessness.
The helplessness of people in the face of the regime is what gives rise to people's growing interest in the Muslim Brotherhood. The fifth segment, 'Religion,' observes that the Brotherhood provides free clinics, food banks and interest-free loans for weddings and funerals. With socialism dead and liberalization blamed for growing poverty, the Brotherhood posits itself as the only real reform candidate. We watch interviews with two Muslim Brotherhood leaders and watch a campaign for Parliament by one of its rising political stars in the face of police resistance to his speeches and rallies
'Religion' also covers the rising tension between Copts and Muslims the film ascribes to the existence of "Salafist cells allied to Al-Qaida"--an exaggeration at best. While acknowledging their underrepresentation in the government and the Army, Coptic leaders interviewed nevertheless support the regime as the lesser of two evils.
Mubarak's 'Last Mistake' in the film's view was the fraudulent elections of Dec. 8, 2010, in which the opposition leaders who had gained power in the 2005 elections and foresaw greater gains in 2010, were shut out though massive voter fraud.
The Internet is mentioned only four times in the film. First, the youth are described by the narrator as "the Internet and Facebook generation." Second, an activist puts up stickers in shops that urges people to visit www.taghyeer.com, the web site for Mohammed El-Baradei's National Association for Change. Third, the narrator mentions that people uploaded footage of fraudulent voting practices to the Internet. And finally, youth activists meeting to plan a demonstration, suggest Facebook as one of (several) possible ways to rally protesters.
This is not, in other words, a social media revolution--it is a revolution in which social media was one of many tools that played a role.
More interesting is the combination of prescience and doubt displayed again and again by Egyptians on the cusp of the revolution. Throughout the film, we hear people say again and again that change will only happen if young people overcome their fear and demonstrate in large numbers.
But no one--student activists, labor leaders or opposition political leaders--regard this as likely any time in the near future. "The solution is in the hands of our 12 million jobless kids," declares one elderly labor leader, to which his comrades respond with shaking heads and derision.
Similarly "Our country's future depends on you, the youth," he tells a crowd at a sports club the Brotherhood built in a village near Cairo. "Nobody could reform it except you!" His words are met by rolled eyes and shaking heads. Similar sentiments are expressed over and over.
Goodbye, Mubarak is not at ethnographic film, nor does it make use of any anthropological concepts to tell its story. It is a straightforward, neatly linear (one might argue too linear) documentary examining the tensions building in Egypt that led to the 2011 revolution.
For those familiar with modern Egypt and its uprising, little in the film will be new or surprising. The film does, however, nicely capture the central paradox that many Egyptians knew their country was on the edge of a revolution, yet no one actually saw it coming until they found themselves in the middle of it.
To cite this review, the American Anthropological Association recommends the following style:
Peterson, Mark Allen
2012 Review of Goodbye, Mubarak. Anthropology Review Database August 3, 2012. http://wings.buffalo.edu/ARD/cgi/showme.cgi?keycode=5151, accessed May 18, 2013.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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(available online: http://wings.buffalo.edu/ARD/)
