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Mad in Egypt. On the spirit of the revolution.

Radiofeature. Co-production NDR/WDR 2013. Producer: Ulrike Toma. Director: Nikolai von Koslowski. 53 min. NDR Info, 7 April 2013, 11:05. WDR3, 25. August 2013. DeutschlandRadio Kultur, 7 Dezember 2013, 18:05. By Thilo Guschas.

Photo: Nermine Hammam
Photo: Nermine Hammam

Mad in Egypt. On the spirit of the revolution.

The political struggle is only on the outside. The Egyptian revolution takes place in spheres that are much deeper. Society is finding new definitions of what is ‚normal.‘ The spirit of the revolution is also present at Abbasseya hospital, Egypt’s biggest psychiatry. A blogger that had violated political taboos was to be incarcerated as madman. Courageous psychiatrists liberated him. Old patterns tumble. This can be felt also by patients who live behind the clinic’s walls. They carefully follow the news about the national revolution in television. The want change in their hospital, in their ward. „Not even the Muslim brotherhood can stop the revolution as it is in our souls“, says Mohamed. „There will be no change, people don’t change,“ Adil is convinced. „Everybody is mentally ill somehow,“ Sineb says who thinks that the psychiatry is a nice place for he. "The true madmen are those who are outside of our clinic!“