MIFF NOTES: Clash (2016, Dir. Mohamed Diab)

The "group of people in confined space" approach to film making is one that always puts me on edge. There are too many pitfalls for director or screenwriter to fall into, too many too-convenient narrative turns to force the group dynamics down, too many character contrivances to neatly stir the claustrophobic social dynamic.

Mohamed Diab, who proved with Cairo 678 that he is more than able to fuse the didactic with a moving and cleverly-constructed character driven narrative, gets tangled up here. His back-of-a-police-van view of the violent protests that rocked Cairo after the military take-down of the post-Mubarak Muslim Brotherhood led government makes muddied work of a muddied situation. While the uncertain allegiances and accompanying paranoia may work wonders for the verisimilitude, the single location conceit and the calibre of the acting don't.

So, for all its technically and logistically impressive components (some of the protest scenes, though only seen through the van windows, are epic), the film overall is too constructed to involve and too frenzied to instruct.

★★☆

Trailer:

Clash screened as part of the Melbourne International Film Festival 2016.

You can check out other films from the festival here.