Abo Zaabal 89

Bassam Mortada was five years old when he first visited his father Mahmoud in the notorious Abo Zaabal prison. With the police raid still fresh in his mind, his experience was dominated by incomprehension. But in the years that followed, resentment took hold. Bassam was raised by his mother Fardous, a socialist activist herself. As a single parent, her life was hard, and when Mahmoud was finally released from prison he seemed like a different person.