‘Suicidal Notions’ and ‘Trapped’ brilliantly capture the complex struggles of Egyptian women

The filming of 'Trapped' began in 2011, but was forced to take a hiatus after director Manal Khaled struggled to secure funding for the film that did not encroach on its creative freedom or interfere in its script.

Filming later resumed in 2014.

Both filmmakers faced many challenges in independently producing their respective films, but the similarities between the two movies go beyond their technical and logistical challenges.

'Suicidal Notions'

El Naggar says she drew the inspiration for her film from a friend's story about having to stay with his dead mother's body under the same roof because he could not bring himself to bury her immediately after her passing.

The director must have made the same connections we all instinctively make when we hear the word "body", about the relationship between the alive and the dead in physical terms and about our relationship as human beings with time.

After all, a corpse represents the freezing of a moment that should pass to allow the present and future to unfold. When that fails to happen, we are bound to experience a horrific jumble of times and events.

Marwa, the heroine played by Donia Maher, falls victim to this horrifying experience. She finds herself forced to stay beside her dead mother's body in the latter's apartment in downtown Cairo when the region becomes the hotspot of the revolution, rendering the mother's burial impossible.

Marwa is not only trapped with death, but also imprisoned within the fiery streets of downtown Cairo where clashes between protesters and police take an increasingly violent turn.

'Trapped'

In 'Trapped', three heroines are in the street when the demonstrations erupt, but those who were at home also found themselves trapped. One of the opening scenes is inspired by real-life events that director Manal Khaled and co-writer Rasha Azab experienced firsthand during the 2011 revolution.

The story follows women of various social and cultural backgrounds united by the oppression they face at the hands of authorities (political, social, and sometimes cultural). Some of them decide to take to the streets and demand their rights; others must carry on with the daily grind to make ends meet, even if that means going to work at such a volatile moment.

Backdrop of revolution

Nobody — especially not the two filmmakers — has characterised the two films as political movies. Yet both are set against the backdrop of the January 2011 revolution in Egypt. And, in both, the concept of revolution applies less to the events taking place in the outside world and more to the experiences the heroines of the two movies go through.

The revolution here is not only the backdrop, but also the trigger that prompts the heroines to rethink their life choices. It's a sweet and sour moment whose outcome remains a mystery far on the horizon — just one possibility among a myriad.

Marwa's conundrum

In 'Suicidal Notions,' Marwa is preparing to leave the country. The film opens with Marwa at a travel agency, staring at a miniature airplane model and dreaming of a new future.

In the next scene, she is shocked to learn of her mother's death. Before then, Marwa was preparing to leave her mother and life in Egypt behind and start a new life elsewhere. However, the mother's sudden death rehashes questions from the past, and Marwa sets out to resolve the mysteries she unwillingly inherited.

Were the mother's secrets worth Marwa sacrificing her travel plans for, despite having prepared everything for her new life with her husband? Or was Marwa unsure of her decision to leave in the first place?

Stuck with her mother's body inside while the revolution rages outside, Marwa's conundrum begs the question: should we stay in a country we don't see a future for ourselves in, or should we leave? Should we try to change things where we are, or should we move abroad to secure a better life for our children?

The film poses these questions but does not offer concrete answers. Marwa herself is not the confident heroine that knows where to go next. She is lost and hesitant, just like us. And perhaps here exactly is where the revolution lies: in accepting the uncertainty at those cliff-edge, suicide-like moments.

Revolutionary stances

In 'Trapped,' the revolution begins with direct clashes between protesters and violent authorities.

In the first storyline, the heroine (Reem Hegab) seeks shelter from the violence on the street inside the mobile shop of an ordinary middle-class man (Osama Abu Al Ata).

A true revolutionary, she believes in her right and duty to take to the street, but this man is too caught up in his traditional and prejudiced thoughts against women to understand her. He insists on labelling her, cannot comprehend why she would go out alone at night, and interrogates her about her religion.

His very stance towards her is just as revolutionary as her partaking in demonstrations. Will he allow her to stay sheltered from the police until the morning, or will he leave her to suffer knowing just how vicious the police can be?

Another storyline in the film revolves around Farah, a girl who spends all her time in front of the television, deprived of a real childhood. Farah's only family is her mother — a nurse whose only concern upon hearing news of street clashes on TV is how she well get to the hospital where she works. She must go. With no money in her wallet or food on the table, she has no other choice.

Scared of the unknown, Farah's mother locks her inside the house. For an unknown time, Farah is trapped in her own home. The only human interaction she makes is with a protester who climbed the building to hide from the police.

The film's representation of the fear and entrapment that the child has to endure brilliantly reflects the social injustice faced by single mothers in Egypt and its effect on young children.

The third storyline, set in a women's traditional bathing place (Hammam) near downtown Cairo, inspired the movie's title in Arabic 'Hammam Sokhn,' a play on words that translates to 'Hot Bath' but also to 'being entrapped or in trouble.'

Police use the bathhouse to beat and imprison women.

After beating two protesters — one a veiled middle-class woman (Caroline Khalil) and the other a young revolutionary journalist — the officers bring the two women to the hammam, where they imprison them.

What was once a safe space for women to relax and unwind suddenly turns into a real-life prison. Soon, we learn that the hammam director (Zeina Mansour), who becomes a makeshift prison guard, is not acting of her own volition. Just like her prisoners, she is also a victim of the police's brutality.

Is this their new reality, or will things change? Perhaps in the answer to that question lies the meaning of revolution as the movie presents it.

Cinematic style and stellar performances

In 'Suicidal Notions,' Eman El Naggar uses a cinematic style that's closer to documentary filmmaking, fit for the journey of a baffled and restless Marwa as she seeks a way out of her dilemmas. The director uses real-life footage of protests and clashes to give us better insight into Marwa's situation.

The filmmakers' austere approach to production is evident.

For one, the scenes are shot in real Egyptian middle-class homes instead of man-made sets. As for the lighting, the movie heavily relies on natural light, which helps capture the darkness and confusion that Marwa is struggling with.

The cast's performance is also spot on. Donia Maher brilliantly portrays Marwa's confusion, as does Yasmine El Naggar in her portrayal of the aunt's apathy, or alleged apathy, through a touch of light-heartedness in an otherwise gloomy atmosphere emanating from the mother's corpse.

The rest of the cast also give stellar performances. Zaki Fateen Abdel Wahab, Salma El Tarzi, Sedky Sakhr, Yara Emad, Sanaa Saraya, and Eman Ghoneim all deliver their absurd and light-hearted roles expertly, while Salma Samy's silent performance masterfully adds a layer of mystery to the mother's heirloom.

In 'Trapped,' the filmmaking process is more artistic in nature, which makes sense for a movie that took a decade to be made.

The film opens with a typical Cairene atmosphere, evident in the distinctive language of Cairo streets and houses, the laundry hung on clotheslines, down to the details of windows and doors. In the background, we hear heartwarming Egyptian songs. Dialogues from old Egyptian movies play out, as if in a salute to the long-standing Egyptian cinema.

Harsh as the ending of some storylines can be, the shift from one storyline to another employs these familiar Cairene sights and sounds to create an intimate and optimistic atmosphere.

With a host of talented actresses like Caroline Khalil, Neama Mohsen, Mona Mokhtar, Tharaa Goubail, Ragwa Hamed, and Habiba Effat, 'Trapped' tells the story of women in captivity who come together to free themselves from the chains trapping them and create a revolution of their own.