Egyptian filmmaker Khaled Abol Naga was making a documentary about the country's rebellious underground arts scene when a real rebellion arose, SBS' Karen Ashford reports.
The film 'Microphone' gives a voice to the Twitter generation who want a better Egypt.
It is set in Alexandria's burgeoning hip hop scene, capturing the ripples of change that led to real life political protest.
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“There was this whole underground world to Alexandria that event their parents don't know [about],” Khaled Abol Naga told SBS.
“They are right in front of your nose but you don't see them.”
Naga was there with cameras when the underground world took to the streets.
Yet the change came as a shock even to him.
“We didn't have hope that things like that would change really, we didn't really think that this would change the whole country,” he says.
'Microphone' features real activists alongside actors and was launched in Cairo on the day of the city's Tahir Square uprising.
After 18 days of protests by more than two million people, the streets are quieter now, but Naga believes the revolutionary spirit continues.
The film screens tonight at the Adelaide Film Festival, before Naga returns to the studio to turn his footage into a documentary.
