Origin: Germany, Iran | Documentary | Director: Mahshid Mahboubifar | 16 minutes

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The Muscles Are Tense
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.

Festivals:
IFFR (Rotterdam) 2026: https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2026/films/the-muscles-are-tense

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