The Museum describes a part of the recent history of Egypt. The October War was fought from October 6 to October 26 in 1973 by a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria against Israel. The Egyptians and the Syrians advanced during the first 24 to 48 hours, after which momentum began to swing in Israel's favor. By the second week of the war the Israelis struck at the seam between two invading Egyptian armies, crossed the Suez Canal, and cut off the Egyptian Third Army just as a United Nations cease-fire came into effect.
The Egyptians believe in their victory of winning the October War, even though the Israeli army stood stronger at the moment of the cease-fire. The October War Museum describes the events before the outbreak of the war and the successful first 24 to 48 hours, the rest of the story is not mentioned. The Museum is surrounded by a garden filled with memorabilia from the war. In the building there is a large, round-shaped room, with a panoramic painting describing the war through the Egyptian eyes. The visitor sits on a moving platform in the middle of the room, and sees the whole painting in a 13 minute show with a voice-over and war sounds accompany the painting. Adults and children sit together while the image slowly passes by. Parents, brothers, sisters and teachers explain the younger children what they are looking at.
I tried to document the past presented in the October Panorama War Museum, and its meaning to Egyptians in general. The result is a work in progress, perhaps a short film in which the people who visit this museum are the actors in a spectacle; the nationalistic propaganda of forging history. In my film and my pictures we see how this Egyptian ‘truth’ about the October War is presented to the younger Egyptian generation.
New generations are growing up with a distorted image of their past and older generations seem to be brain-washed. When a Egyptian gives answer to the question: ‘Who won the October War?’ he or she will answer with: ‘Egypt won focuses!’. Distorting and changing history also means changing an identity.