ABSTRACT
This article analyses Egyptian film-maker Yousry Nasrallah's film The Aquarium (2008) as a germane example of a new genre of film-making in Egypt that is emblematic of a revolution in film-making on the level of film language, technique and format. The author argues that although many commercial and independent films in Egypt in the past decade have taken up social, political and economic problems, and have helped expose the endemic corruption and bankruptcy of the Mubarak regime, the bulk of these films have not contributed to revolutionizing the medium itself through technique and point of view. Furthermore, most of these films suffer from a type of didacticism. In contradistinction, The Aquarium offers a salient example of using innovative filmic language in Egyptian cinema to expose many societal and political issues that plague Egyptian society. Hence, this article investigates the innovative aspects of The Aquarium at the level of film language, locating the film within the realm of the cinematic innovations that the French New Wave ushered in. If post-25 January Egyptian cinematic production results in revolutionizing the content and narrative structure of films, it is the hope that innovations will also happen at the level of the visual and film language. Finally, this article argues that Yousry Nasrallah's film provides a cogent precedent in the revolutionizing of film grammar in Egyptian cinema.
