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Amunition poem.

Radiofeature. Co-production SWR/NDR/WDR. Producer: Walter Filz. Director: Helgard Haug. 20 März 2016. By Helgard Haug und Thilo Guschas.

Omar Hazekin prison Alexandria. Foto: PEN Austria.
Omar Hazekin prison Alexandria. Foto: PEN Austria.

Amunition poem.

The Egyptian dictatorship is back, media suffer from censorship, demonstrations are even banned. But the verses are still on the streets. Poets spread self-recorded poems via internet, TV talkshows treat them like popstars. The Arabic poetry is alive and can become a political fuel. Stanzas by the hippie poet Ahmed Fouad Negm inspired the Egyptian people to their peaceful protest in 2011. Written in political imprisonment in the 60s. Message in an bottle that passes decades. Nowadays there are again tens of thousands of political prisoners, Islamists as well as leftists. Do the forge new amunition that passes through walls? Via secret messages, the duo Helgard Haug and Thilo Guschas corresponds with poet Omar Hazek who once – in front of an audience of millions – become the winner of the pan-Arabic casting show „Prince of poets.“ What does Arabic poetry call for nowdays? What future action does it anticipate like lightening does with thunder?