Cairo in One Breath

NEW DOCS

The adhan is the Muslim call to prayer, an invitation to sacred space traditionally performed by a muezzin at a mosque five times each day. Cairo has thousands of mosques, and with countless muezzins chanting the call simultaneously there is a holy cacophony that reverberates through the city’s soundscape. Enter the Ministry of Religious Endowments with the concept of a unified adhan, a single call from one muezzin broadcast from a central studio to a network of mosques, each relaying the adhan through its own sound system. This beautiful and timely film is full of rich details of everyday life and maintains a quiet respect for the range of opinions voiced on either side of this somewhat unpopular edict. In a culture still unsettled by recent revolution, the idea of any kind of unification is controversial, and the loss of local traditions and individual voices is deeply felt.  TW

Director

Anna Kipervaser

Producers

Anna Kipervaser, Rodion Galperin, Scott F. Busch

Editor

Scott F. Busch

Cinematographers

Anna Kipervaser, David Degner, Meredith Zielke, Rodion Galperin, Dina Hisham

Release Year

2014

Festival Year

2015

Country

United States

Run Time

80 minutes

Subtitled

Partially subtitled

Premiere

World Premiere