By May El Naggar 
"El Batout drills into drawing connections between people and their different situations; they could superficially seem distant and unrelated, but he subtly directs our attention to the ties between them through his use of the storytelling technique and through highlighting the similarities in their lives. The war in a neighboring country in the middle east is now nothing more than a news story to us; a news story that we are slowly growing detached from. The film reflects on the suffering of Iraqis, of Egyptians, and even on the suffering of Christ, the story of which is told for multi-purposes in the film. This creates insight and a unified human experience of people wherever they are; it doesn't matter if they live in Iraq or Ein Shams. The relatively impoverished Cairene district.Slowly,the detachment diminishes and the connection is remade.
This notion is also evident in the techniques used in the film. There is an ethereally-constructed blend between the documentary footage and the fictional, the general and the specific, the happy and the sad, the past and the present, the magical and the real, the inevitability of some things in life and the ability to change. All of this creates a surreal feel, so similar to how life is, making you step over the boundaries between your life and the film, and suddenly you are one of the characters. You share on world with them, on situation and possibly one fate. We are all a part of this cause-and-effect chain.
The Political corruption, the poverty, the diseases, the hypocrisy, the lies, the contradictions, the cancerous food, the pollution; these could all be very general topics, but El Batout reflects on them through the details of the lives of his characters, making us experience it not as headlines, but through human experiences, it becomes so intense that by the last 10 minutes of the film, I started feeling sorry, not only for the characters of the film, but for myself and for the whole country!...
....It's like we have developed thick skin towards all these disappointments we are going through on a day-to-day basis, and then comes a film like Ein Shams to shake us and actually sharpen our senses to take life as it is, to connect to it more and strengthen our awareness of our problems and of each other. What we make of this experience is each person's own choice.
one of my choices was to interview this guy behind such memorable work of art:
So how did it all start?
I don't want to sound philosophical, but everything in life is connected somehow. I started working as a cameraman for Video Cairo, who does documentaries for foreign TV stations. I stayed there between 1987 and 1991.The i worked independently. I originally studied physics at AUC.
It's a major change.
I loved physics when i was in high school. At college physics opened my mind to a different perspective towards life. There are many layers to one picture. And working with physics, or pictures; working with films, or working at a lab is all the same thing. At the end of the day, you're either fulfilling your purpose in life or not. For me, making films became my purpose in life later on.
What was your purpose in life back then?
Cycling, Singing, discovering the world and traveling on my bike. In 1988, there was a demonstration in Ein Shams. I went to cover it, and a lot of things happened. I was on the side of the people, not the police. I got shot in the arm by the police, and I was saved by the people of Ein Shams. A guy took me to his house and locked it, and gave me first aid and thanked me for what I'm doing. And he told me how important it is for them to see someone with their camera filming.
So this brought me face to face with the reality that what I'm doing matters to people even if i don't know them and even if i meet them for a day. This meeting that happened at Ein Shams marked my life forever. It made me more confident of what i want to do. It made me confident that it's a career I want to pursue to the end. And this is what happened later.
What was your family's opinion on your decision to become a documentary director in war zones?
It was very tough, inhumane and mad for them. But I was very determined. This kinda turned me into someone who will not stop trying to reach his dream or his aim regardless of any emotions with my wife or son or daughter.
Your kids don't mind this dangerous job?
My personal life compared to the typical person is very different. I was married three times. I could never live with someone; now am living alone and I'm happy being alone. I think I'm a bit of an extreme. For me to create. I can't be in this safe zone or a safe heaven kind of situation. To have a balance in my life, it bugs me big time. My energy is all going to making films. It is a very hard trip. On top of that, am working independently. So am going every against single norm you can think of. I don't work with stars. I don't work with a budget. I have no obligations towards a producer who nags. I want my ideas to be as fresh as possible. I don't care much about a big budget.
My Experience made me realize how absurd this life is. I have seen a lot of people losing their kids, homes and lives. And to be honest, firsthand, life is not fair. Life is not what they tell us it is.
Who are "they"?
Our society. Our parents. Our Education. All these things we have been fed all these years.
How did this reality check affect you?
It made me realize that we're very fortunate to be in this system. We're very fortunate to be offered this chance to live. It's our duty to discover what it means to each one of us. And it's our duty to read the way it offers itself to us. There are no givens in this life. You come in and you start discovering what it's about, and you start writing your own book and making your own film and telling your own story. And by avoiding clinging to the false stability that we construct around us; by knowing that the most beautiful thing about life is that it's insecure, chaotic, unfair; by embracing that, you start living.
You let go of the fear.
You can't live without the fear. You can work and deal with it. Fear is a substance; it's like your blood; it's a part of you. It's an entity that you need to deal with, not run away from.
What's the difference between Ibrahim Pre and Post the war experience?
I stopped going to war in 2004, but it never left me. We are still living together. It's an organic experience; it doesn't start and stop. What i learned in the battlefield I'm using in my work here. Like in Ein Shams...the way it was made, the way it progressed, the way I'm fighting for it now.
Why did you start doing fiction?
Because I have seen enough of reality that i started feeling that i want to create a different kind of reality. It's now about choosing which stories to portray, which feelings to portray, and how to affect people. When I made "Ithaki", my first feature film, my major aim was to not project negativity on the viewer. I was very conscious of trying to make it easy for them. So i chose a very subtle cinematic language that is kind of like playing with a feather. Then something else was pushing in me. I came to terms to: either do it or don't do it, say it or don't say it. So i made Ein Shams. A lot of people cry when they see Ein Shams. I don't feel sorry for that.
Tell me about it! And the fact that the censors won't allow you to screen it, because you didn't go through the procedures of taking permits before filming; does that make you believe that you are subjected to a conspiracy theory?
Of course. I know what am facing. I know I'm facing a market that wants to be closed on its people. I know am facing a market that doesn't have the know-how of making films the way you describe them or the way I like them. For them, it is easy to regenerate this crap every now and then. The audience accepts that because it also accepts to consume cancerous food, polluted air, and even poor movies; like this is one more addition to this poor standard of living.
So the audience is partly responsible?
I totally agree.
What do you suggest then?
People need to be shaken. People need to make the effort. To understand that freedom is a right to work for and sacrifice things for and lose a lot to get.
What did you lose for your freedom?
I lost being with my son, daughter and wife. I lost an easy relaxed life. I work every single day. I sit on this couch you're sitting on for three hours when I wake up just to get the energy to get started. And just to get up. I see my country being totally drenched in fear. Half of my society is covered. Half of my society is asked to never feel the breeze of the air in their hair. am acknowledging the aggression in the street, but am not feeling it, because am not a woman. I can imagine the amount of pressure that is put on you when you walk in the street, denying you from living your life. So this is our country now. And what have we done?
Absolutely nothing. So with this heaviness, what gets you out of bed and gives you hope?
What gets me out of bed is what am doing next, and I have a lot of next to do. As if am trying to change my life with things to do. Otherwise I would have been sitting in Sinai, smoking and having fun.
What is your next project?
I'm working on different projects all the time. It's as if my mind can't stop. I'm preparing for a film called '1/4 Gram' which discusses drugs and addiction. am also working on another film along with independent directors Tamer El Said and Hala Lotfy that is called "A Backdoor to a morning".
What's the situation of Ein Shams now?
Ein Shams is in Morocco and we're working on the campaign to bring it back. We are trying to raise the issue to the people's assembly
The Censors agreed to allow the film in to Egypt and to have it screened under the identity of a foreign film. Why are you objecting to that?
Because that's ridiculous.
Isn't the point to get people to watch it anyway?
To save Ein Shams, yes. But to save this way of making films, no. You as a journalist, have one thousand times more freedom that I do as a filmmaker. You can go anywhere and write. It is a fight for this way of making films; independent films. It's a fight for our identity as filmmakers and the freedom we need to make films. I want the film to be screened in the regular cinema theatres especially that it is now 35mm.The feedback i got on the film from the few people who watched it is great. So the chances are that it would appeal to more people.
The film was made in a different way. Without the censors' Permission. I filmed it and am asking them now to see it so that I'd screen it. They don't want this. They want you to inform them of the film from the point of just thinking about it.
They are punishing you in a way?
They are. And they are trying to close the tab on this method of making films. We are fighting hard to bring it in.
Do you believe cinema has the power to change people?
We have two options. People will get used to it and won't ask for their rights. But maybe someone will change things. And am betting on that one. If my film changes on person, then i have done my job, If you leave the film thinking, what can I do and how can I make things better, then el hamdulellah.
Do you believe there is an independent cinema scene in Egypt?
We have individuals trying to make their own project. There are trials but it's not a movement. We produce around thirty independent films a year in Egypt. So it's not a movement.
Are you going back to documentaries anytime soon?
If I find an interesting idea. I don't have a problem with different forms of films.
As you shot your documentaries in the war zones you have been to, have you ever put the camera down to help someone who got shot in front of you?
No. You change
What goes through your mind at a point like this?
I Just think about taking the shot. Making the film.
Where is the human in you at that point?
"Human" is a romantic idea. It's very complex. I hope I don't go mad one day. I'm doing my best to stay as I can. This person who gets shot can be you. You're sitting next to a person who's just died and it could have been you. So you get to this Twilight zone.
If you have a microphone, and the whole world is listening to you, what would you tell them?
Life is beautiful. Please make the effort to discover it. And be sure that your neighbor is not the same one you met yesterday. Things change. Don't expect life to remain the same. Every day is an opportunity to make things better for us and others."