Blind Ambition

Shot in Cairo with a cell phone, Blind Ambition is made up of nine different moments: conversations of men and women, played by actors, in a frantic urban context. These episodes were developed with the actors and then ‘inserted’ into real life situations where they were then shot. Traffic jams intersect the episodes: rush hour at Ramses Square, a busy shopping mall, the interior of a public transport facility, and so on. Though at first the video seems to give a real picture of the city and its inhabitants, the viewer soon understands that Khan’s work is much more complex. In the banality and diversity of their themes, the dialogues are a non-stop chorus that show seeds of conflict. The characters communicate with each other in loops, searching for resolution and maybe small triumphs but never really reaching a resolution. The cellphone allows for rapid movement, and guides the spectator through the narratives, approaching the subjects and then leaving them, losing interest in the dialogue, which disappears. The dialogues were recorded and dubbed during editing, eliminating background noise. The film runs through the veins of a congested city with alienating effect.