In search of understanding and healing, filmmaker and activist Bassam Mortada explores his father’s arrest, imprisonment and torture in 1989, reconstructing and reconsidering the experience that traumatised and divided his family.

This is the premise of Abo Zaabal 89 [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film], a documentary feature set to world-premiere in the Luminous strand of this year’s IDFA, running in Amsterdam from 14-24 November.

“The relationship with my father is complicated. There is a space we maintain. I always felt he betrayed us by leaving me, my mother and the struggle. Lately, I have had more empathy for him, which leads to me feeling more guilt towards my mother. Perhaps this is the right moment to go to him and try to bring him closer to us all – to break the silence and the walls of isolation,” the director explains.

Abo Zaabal 89 is a production by Kesmat Elsayed for Germany’s Seera Films, and Anke Petersen and Anna Chester for fellow German outfit Jyoti Films, with backing from Visions sud est, the Doha Film Institute, the MOIN Film Fund Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, SEE Media Production, the IDFA Bertha Fund, Robert Bosch Stiftung and AFAC – The Arab Fund for Arts and Culture.

Check out our exclusive trailer below: