Egyptian Film 'Abo Zaabal 89' Will Be Screened in Palestine

Egyptian director Bassam Mortada's documentary ‘Abo Zaabal 89’ is being screened in Palestine, with one screening on February 4th at Ramallah Municipal Theater, and the second on February 7th at Nablus’s Turquoise Hostel.

'Abo Zaabal 89' is both an intimate memoir and a historical reckoning. Mortada, the son of Egyptian socialist activist Mahmoud Mortada, revisits the trauma of 1989, when his father was incarcerated during the Steel and Iron Company strike. Bassam, still a teenager at the time, accompanied his mother, Fardous, to visit his father in Abu Zaabal prison, a memory that became etched into their family’s history.

Decades later, ‘Abu Zaabal 89’ reconstructs this moment, not just as a personal reflection but as a wider narrative about resistance, memory, and political legacy. Through candid conversations with his parents and archival footage, Mortada weaves a multilayered story of family, repression, and resilience – one that received three awards at the Cairo International Film Festival and one award at Amman International Film Festival.