Educational Media Reviews Online

“For 18 days in January 2001, Egyptians took to the streets to protest the authoritarian regime of President Hosni Mubarak. The main demonstrations took place in Cairo’s Tahrir Square and the roads leading to it, most notably Mohamad Mahmoud Street. On February 11, 2011, Mubarak stepped down and turned power over to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF). For the next 16 months, public outrage over SCAF’s rule and its repressive tactics lead to repeated deadly clashes. And the revolution continued.” With this much needed historical background, Nefertiti's Daughters launches into an exploration of the role women and street art play in the revolution in Egypt. While there were just as many women protesting in the streets as men, women are more ostracized now than when the uprising began.

Nefertiti's Daughters gives us the stories behind the graffiti by interviewing street artists, journalists, and academics, primarily female. This last detail is important because one of the film’s themes is women’s voices. Because the men of Egypt are trying to silence them, even considering a woman calling for prayer sacrilegious, women have turned to art to in order to speak. The images are universal, there is no need to understand Arabic to appreciate them or this documentary. Its short running time lends itself well to classroom use and compliments the current outcrop of films centered around being a woman in the Arab World (See India: A Dangerous Place to Be a Woman). The revolution-within-a-revolution subject matter will appeal to teens.

Awards

• First Prize Athens Film Festival
• Gold Medal Worldfest Houston