World Premiere

In 2008 the filmmakers were following a group of young heavy-metal musicians in Egypt who offered an unconventional perspective on the Muslim world. Oppressed by a government that banned their music, the kids struggled to retain a small bit of freedom. Then one spring, Hosni Mubarak’s 28-year grip on the country was broken, and what had been a story about the struggle for the right to free expression — the right to rock — became a story about the battle for the future of Egypt.

Before the Spring After the Fall portrays a few remarkable young people —sons of a jailed political dissident and the leader of the only female metal band in the Middle East — as they seek to reshape their country, defining themselves as individuals in the process. With their music as the soundtrack, we follow them into a transformed world, where the political becomes the personal, where uncertainty is the only constant. [subtitles]