LIGHT UPON LIGHT
A fieldtrip into the mystical traditions of Islam exploring people's search for light at a time of darkness and political tension in post revolutionary Egypt. Sonia sees light streaming into her heart from a person’s finger. Aya is lifted into a luminous space in the midst of a ritual. Maher travels to the shrine of a holy man to find out if the light and love that people are referring to is real. Meanwhile the film crew, Muhammad, Amira, and Christian tries to find out how they can film these experiences of light and how there can be so much light and darkness in this world and inside themselves.
Documentary, 78 min, Hassala Films and Persona Film, Cairo–Aarhus 2022
Directed by Christian Suhr, produced by Hala Lotfy
Written and edited by: Muhammad Mustapha and Christian Suhr
Filmed by: Christian Suhr, Amira Mortada, and Muhammad Mustapha
Christian Suhr is a filmmaker and professor of visual and multimodal anthropology at Aarhus University. He is the PI of the ERC-project: “Heart Openings: The Experience and Cultivation of Love in Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam” (2021-26). His previous research has focused on invisible spirits, psychiatric illnesses, demonic and divine forces, and how film can be used to approach unseen dimensions of human life. He has explored these topics during fieldwork projects in Egypt, Papua New Guinea, and Denmark.
He is the author of the book Descending with angels: Islamic exorcism and psychiatry, a film monograph (Manchester University Press 2019) based on a feature length film of the same title. In addition, he is the director of the award-winning films Unity through culture (with Ton Otto, DER 2011), Ngat is dead (with Ton Otto and Steffen Dalsgaard, DER 2009) and Want a camel, yes? (with Mette Bahnsen, Persona Film 2005).