Some REEL Muslims...

[onager]

(NOTE: this is being posted in the Atheists/Agnostics group. If snark about religions bothers you, maybe you'd better stop reading now.)

Here are some movies I liked about the Middle East, mostly from a Muslim point of view. With some of my usual irrelevant and rambling sidetracks.

Feel free to mention any I missed or any of your own favorites in the genre. I'm always looking for new stuff to watch.

**********************************************************
Wadjda (2012 - Saudi Arabia)

Written and directed by a WOMAN, Haifaa Al-Mansour. In a country where men and women are legally barred from working together...and a country that has NO MOVIE THEATERS, thanks to its idiotic Wahhabi rulers. Over at IMDB, a Saudi woman reviews the movie and mentions that she could only see it at one place - the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh.

The movie was filmed in Riyadh, and some stories say Al-Mansour directed it "from the back of a van."

The basic plot makes it sound like a kid's movie - Wadjda is a 10-yr-old girl determined to get herself a bicycle. Even though her Mom warns her that riding a bike means she'll never be able to have children. And "determined" is an understatement. When it comes to that bike, Wadjda makes Captain Ahab look like a slacker.

But definitely not a kid's movie. In the background, Wadjda's father is about to leave the family and move in with his (younger) "second wife," as he is allowed to do according to his religion.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2258858/?ref_=nv_sr_1

**********************************************************
Cairo 678 (2010 - Egypt)

Fictionalized version of a famous Egyptian legal case - the very first case of sexual harassment allowed in an Egyptian court. The plot follows three very different women living in Cairo, and how they deal with daily sexual harassment.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1764141/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

**********************************************************
The Band's Visit (2007 - Israel)

From Egypt, the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra visits Israel. They have a prestigious performance lined up, at a new Arab Cultural Center in the town of Petah Tiqva.

Unfortunately...the Arab language doesn't have a "p" sound and substitutes a "b." So they end up very lost, way out in the Negev Desert, at a tiny fly-blown village...

"Hello. We are looking for the Petah Tiqva Cultural Center."
"This is Beit Hatikva. Cultural CENTER? We don't even have any CULTURE!"

The first of many misunderstandings that everybody just has to work thru, because they're stuck with each other. At least for the night. And since nobody speaks each other's language, they communicate in broken English. (So broken it still needs subtitles.)

As one reviewer said: it's one thing to hate people in the abstract. But another thing to hate a stranger standing in front of you who's lost and hungry.

This is a wonderfully humanistic movie, IMO. And no, not one word is spoken about war.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1032856/?ref_=nv_sr_1

**********************************************************
The Yacoubian Building (2006 - Egypt)

Alaa' Al-Aswany's novel caused a huge uproar when published in 2002, because it dealt with the Three Big Taboos in Egypt: politics, sex and religion. When time came to make it a movie, every famous actor in Egypt was clamoring for a part in it.

And no wonder. There was something here to outrage everybody, and it also jumped dead into the Fourth Unmentionable - class. Along with exposing religious leaders and politicians as raging hypocrites.

Characters include:
--Taha, a moderate Muslim who only wants to join the police. He is barred because his father is too low-class: a janitor. After an arrest at a rally and brutalizing by the police he once wanted to join, he ends up a radical fundamentalist.
--His girlfriend Bothayna, whose price of employment includes daily groping by her boss.
--Halem, editor of a prestigious magazine, who is gay.
--Azzam, aspiring politician who takes a second wife in secret. It won't stay secret when she gets pregnant...

ETA - you really should read the book before seeing this movie.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0425321/?ref_=nv_sr_1

**********************************************************

Osama (2003 - Afghanistan)

No, not THAT Osama. The Taliban move into a small Afghan village and immediately ban women from working. The plot focuses on one household containing nothing but women, of three generations. If they can't work, they will literally starve. So their young daughter dresses as a boy and gets work with a sympathetic shop owner - knowing she will be killed if the Taliban finds her out.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0368913/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ov_pl

**********************************************************
9th Company (2005 - Russia)

"So I went home from Afghanistan. With medals from a country that no longer existed."

The story of some Russian kids, conscripted into the Red Army in 1988...just in time for the last bloody year of war in Afghanistan. Intense and gory in places, quiet and thoughtful in others. Directed by Fedor Bondarchuk - his father directed the famous 9,000-hour version of War and Peace in 1956.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0417397/?ref_=nv_sr_1

**********************************************************

Argh! That's way more than enough for now, though I do have some others...

[Cartoonist]

1. Wadjda

I've read about that one, and am interested in seeing it. I like how people find a way to overcome religious oppression. We need more of that in this world. We need it here on DU also.

[Lordquinton]

2. I remember Osama on the shelves of Hollywood Video

never watched it, but as a good movie seller I could give a glowing review/synopsis, and everyone who rented it spoke very highly.

A movie I enjoy is called The Beast (not the one with the squid) it's about a Russian tank trapped in Afghanistan, and everything they go through trying to get back to the army. It's not one to pull punches either, the opening scene has the tank crew punishing a village for hiding members of the mujaheddin.

[onager]

3. "Beast" is one of my faves too!

I especially liked the Afghan crew member who says he's "reconciled Marx and the Koran."

That one was filmed in Israel. You probably noticed that the tanks were Israeli Tirans - modified Russian T-55's.

One minor pedantic, techno-anal quibble I had with 9th Company: that movie had the backing of the Russian govt., so it's full of real hardware: HIND gunships, An-123 aircraft, BMPs, etc. But the tanks were T-72s, which the Russians never used in Afghanistan, AFAIK. The T-55s and T-62s were good enough. Tough, cheap and proven.

And reliable. I've read that the T-72s auto-loader was notorious for trying to load crew members into the main gun, along with the ammo. The Red Army had some grim jokes about it: "A veteran missing his left arm was probably a T-72 commander. Missing the right arm, he was a gunner." And "The Red Army Choir gets all its sopranos from former T-72 crewmen."

[Act_of_Reparation]

4. I've been meaning to see that one.

And you gotta love Soviet-era Russian humor. People think we're snarky...

[Lordquinton]

5. The details were what made it stand out among war films

like when they fired the main gun, they didn't muck about with special effects, they just fired the gun. You can tell by the particular pattern in the sand and such. The Afghan member was a good character. And then there was the Baldwin, somewhat appropriate he was busted turning the fuel into vodka...

[awoke_in_2003]

9. Beast is great...

I need to find it to view it again.

[Warren Stupidity]

6. Osama was really good. It was that movie and some people here on DU that

got me to shed the absurd cultural relativism that ends up protecting just off the wall misogynism as somehow acceptable. It isn't. We are all humans and we share basic human values and that does not include treating half of us as property.

[onager]

7. You'd probably like "Cairo 678" then.

I should have said more about that movie, but the post was already approaching Biblical length.

The 3 main characters in "Cairo 678" are:

Seba, a rich woman who started teaching women's self-defense classes after she was raped.

Fayza, a working-class mother trying to raise enough money to keep her kids in school. Often late to work due to avoiding gropers on the buses. Finally takes direct action with a sharp knitting needle.

Nelly, a young middle-class woman determined to take her assault case to court, despite intense pressure to drop it. Her own family turns against her for "embarrassing" them. And NOBODY in Egypt wants to hear the words "sexual harassment."

Along with the sexual issues, the movie has a lot to say about Egypt's class structure and how it can divide people trying to work toward common goals. (Which seems to be true everywhere in the world.) e.g., Fayza the modest working mother upbraids Seba for wearing tight clothes and not wearing the hijab.

[Cartoonist]

8. Wadjda

I have been haunting all the DVD shelves at the area libraries looking for this film. Finally, a copy appeared in my local branch. I like certain children's films. Ones that are imaginative, humorous, and intelligent. I was expecting a film about a young girl's adventures in a land that was unfamiliar to me. It was much more than that. Wadjda was more mature than other kids, and she had to deal with those older than herself. She was up to the task.

There was a lot more religion in this than I expected, but it was a very critical look at Islam in a very subtle way. I'm glad that nothing truly awful happened, at least in a physical sense, such as violence. I'm not squeemish, but I don't like that stuff. I hate sitting there watching blood get spilled without being able to do anything about it.

I was impressed with how the women showed strength in the face of their second class status. I think the director showed great restraint in not depicting the men as evil bastards. They are as much a victim of religion in that they too have to live in such a rigid society. Of course, they have the power to change things. I hope they will someday.