2026 | Germany | Experimental

The Muscles Are Tense

  • English, German, Arabic 16 mins
  • Director | Mahshid Mahboubifar
  • Writer | Mahshid Mahboubifar
  • Producer | Mahshid Mahboubifar

STATUS: Released

This film is currently not available.   

At a demonstration in Berlin against the genocide in Gaza and the German arms supplies contributing to it, protestors are violently arrested, wrestled to the ground, sprayed with pepper spray and captured on camera. This essay pauses those overwhelming moments and isolates what is happening in order to examine it. Drawing from Fanon and Butler, among others, it offers a pointed interrogation of double standards, the state’s monopoly on violence and protesting under constant surveillance.

Protest Violence Police Resistance Politics
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