Munich Film Festival Review: Freedom Bus (2012)

Director: Fatima Abdollahyan
Country: Germany
Genre: Documentary | Biography | History
Official Trailer: Here

Editor’s Notes: The following article is part of our coverage of the Munich International Film Festival. For more information on the festival visit filmfest-muenchen.de and follow the Munich International Film Festival on Twitter at @filmfestmunich.

Fatima Abdollahyan’s documentary Freedom Bus opens with a video footage from the protests in Cairo in the wake of ‘Arab Spring’ in the year 2011. All the news, videos and reports that the outside world has heard with regards to the revolutions in Egypt, is just a part of what is happening out there and some of them don’t truly reflect the ground reality. And it seldom forgets the people who contributes or shape up the well being of society during the troubled times.

Though the documentary looks more on the steps taken by Ashraf in building his organization from strength to strength, it also showcases the problems faced by the people in this rule…

This documentary follows the life of Ashraf El Sharkawy, 38, who is an Egyptian but was born and brought up in Germany. He used to visit Egypt only during his vacations and he works for the largest insurance company in Germany as a Marketing manager. After the start of Egyptian revolution to overthrow the autocratic rule in the early 2011, Ashraf get to know about the events that are unfolding back in his home country. In the view of contributing something worthwhile to the country, where his roots are from, he decides to quit the job. Fatima asks him what he is going to do once he goes to Egypt. He replies he needs to reach to the people out there.

Ashraf returns to Egypt, meets his friends and like-minded people as starters to explain his idea. He likes to enlighten the people of Egypt regarding the true meaning of democracy and thereby make them prepared for voting the suitable candidate during the democratic elections. He looks upon all options and possibilities of reaching people, while discussing with his friends. Because of his influence in Germany, as well as his friends in Egypt, the group receives the sponsor to carry out this idea. Finally, they come unanimously to an idea of setting up a website and a bus, with both named ‘Freedom Bus’ and the main aim of the organization is to not associate with any political party and enlighten the people on the virtues and values of democracy. Whether his team succeeded in this un-conventional approach of contributing positively to the Egyptian citizens forms the crux of this powerful documentary.

The documentary also tracks the future events that unfolds after the revolution and also gives an account of the present situation in Egypt as well as to the life of Ashraf and his team.

Though the documentary looks more on the steps taken by Ashraf in building his organization from strength to strength, it also showcases the problems faced by the people in this rule, why they need a change and what are all their perceptions on democracy. When the team of Freedom Bus asks and explains people about the true democracy without having any influence of political parties, team gets consistently stormed by questions like ‘Which political party you belong to?’, ‘Who sponsors you?’, ‘What do you think about democracy?’. But they answer them quite diplomatically for the goodwill of the organization. Even in the social media, Freedom Bus (organization) scores high with lot of followers and many people accepting their ideas of democracy. With their reach among the masses, Ashraf and his organization spreads his roots to various places in Egypt like Cairo, Alexandria and so on. All these make Ashraf and his team a bit nervous, because once they start receiving tremendous attention, the government or the politicians may look into this group and their activities. Moreover, Ashraf has to deal the greatest problem of his ‘Dual citizenship’ and has to strategically address the people while speaking about this issue.

The documentary also tracks the future events that unfolds after the revolution and also gives an account of the present situation in Egypt as well as to the life of Ashraf and his team. It takes a lot of courage to leave a luxurious job and life away, for the sake of serving his country in a positive manner. In that way, Ashraf stands as an inspiration for this present generation.

To bring a change in a society, all it takes is an idea. An idea that connects with the people always yields great benefits. Fatima, in bringing the steps of Ashraf and his team to the limelight, also points out the preferences and circumstances of the people’s political views in a candid manner. Even if you don’t know a thing about the Egyptian revolution, at the end of the documentary, one can get a glimpse of good human named Ashraf.

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Venkateshwaran Ganesh

Staff Film Critic. Visit my personal blog at framesofeternity.wordpress.com

Venkatesh is a cinephile, who always try to relate some of the moments of his everyday life with the moving pictures. Though he started a bit late in exploring world cinema, directors like Kubrick, Bresson, Kieslowski, Kurosawa, Satyajit Ray made him stay in this wonderful world of cinema for years to come. Even in the midst of an apocalypse, he tweets @venkkeyy about films. And you can check his not so active blog http://framesofeternity.wordpress.com/ and motivate him time and again.

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