Jason goes to the Arab Film Festival--October 22 and 23

Okay, I'm a couple of movies behind in my updates, and I'm leaving for Houston tomorrow to attend a friend's wedding, so I'll try to make this quick.

Monday night I went up to the Roxie to see the Egyptian youth comedy/drama "Leisure Time". A surprise box office hit back in Egypt, it features mostly unknown actors (very unknown here, but unknown even back in Egypt) and a 19 year old writer. It follows a meandering slacker group of Cairo University students, who should be studying and planning careers but instead drink, smoke pot, and chase girls. Sort of a multi-threaded Egyptian slacker story with funny and somewhat pathetic characters who are recognizable in any culture. Even tragedies of different scales can't bring them to get their lives on track, and without giving anything away the closing scene is a perfect metaphor for their go-nowhere lives. Also, it features a really kick-ass pimped-out car.

And then Tuesday night I went up to see "Why, O Sea?", a non-linear semi-amateur (as far as the acting) Moroccan film about a group of fishermen. For them, the sea is a magical force--the source of their livelihood but also a constant threat. It's a meandering, non-linear barely narrative meditation on their relation to the sea. The story is difficult to follow at times, and really the closing monologue--unrelated in all but theme from the rest of the movie--is more powerful than anything else that happens in the movie (and director Hakim Belabbes was there and admitted as much). Perhaps the rest of the movie is necessary to put you in the right frame of mind for the monologue from a widow who lost her husband and two out of three sons to the sea, but really I think that monologue alone would make a great 10 minute short.

And that was my time at the Arab Film Festival for 2007. The festival continues through the weekend, and then for the first time ever plays for a half-week in Los Angeles. But I'm out of town starting tomorrow, and I'll miss the rest of it.

Jason goes to the Arab Film Festival--Saturday, Oct 20

3 programs on Saturday, and despite a few technical glitches, I had a good time.

First up was a music program, starting with "Heart and Spirit". It's a documentary about a popular Tunisian group that performs a traditional Islamic chant called Hezb Al-latif. The Hezb Al-latif is traditionally performed to dedicate any new project (a new home, etc.). So when a new recording studio wanted to dedicate their space, they brought in sheik Ahmed Jelman to perform the chant with his group. And hey, why not record it? That recording became incredibly popular, and so did the group. And Ahmed is a fine example of staying grounded while balancing his faith, his art, and his success.

Next up was "Qater al Nada", about a Palestinian Dabka dance group. They live in the only remaining Palestinian neighborhood in West Jerusalem, and while other dance groups compete internationally under the Israeli flag, they are adamant about being Palestinian, not Israeli. I'll just skip over the politics and say they're really good dancers.

And the third movie was "El Tanbura, Capturing a Vanishing Spirit", and unfortunately this one was plagued with technical problems. It's the story of a group reviving traditional music and folklore in Port Said, Egypt. Unfortunately, there were multiple audio glitches and the DVD froze up a few times. I could still follow the story somewhat through the subtitles, but when the real draw is the music, audio glitches are very bad. It was a shame.


Anyway, the next show was the children's program, starting with "Carthage Castaways". It was obviously originally a TV cartoon show, about a group of time-travelling adventurers from Carthage. The movie version was three half-hour episodes crammed awkwardly together, but if you consider it a sampler of the show rather than a 90 minute narrative film, it's okay. Actually, the show looks pretty good, although much heavier on history than would appeal to American kids. But that's not a bad thing. Most Americans wouldn't get a reference to the library of Alexandria, but I really, really wish they would. And of course shows like this could change that.

Then the next technical glitch was that they couldn't get the short "The Magic Crop" to play, so they replaced it with "Kemo Sabe", the story of an Arab-American kid who really wants to play on the cowboy side in the game of cowboys and Indians (of course, all the ethnic kids are the Indians). It's a touching story with no easy happy ending.


And then the third program of the night, featuring the first ever Lebanese vampire movie. But first the excellent short, "Garbage". It's a story of sexual obsession and frustration, as the hero steals the neighbor woman's garbage and uses it to learn all about her, having a surrogate relationship with her. And for those who think Arabs culture is all conservative, this movie has a man humping a bag of garbage. There's something I haven't seen in an American movie.

Then finally the movie I was most eager to see, "The Last Man" is billed as the first Lebanese vampire movie, and is a very strange vampire movie at that. It opens with a shot of waves crashing against a sea wall shot in a manner that makes Beirut look really Gothic. In fact, the camera work throughout the movie does an excellent job of portraying the city as a mysterious, foreboding force. It then launches into a fragmented, non-linear story of a murderous monster killing people and sucking their blood. Mild-mannered doctor and scuba enthusiast Khalil Shams (Carlos Chahine) is afraid he might be the vampire, as his eyes become increasingly sensitive to sunlight. The movie jumps around in time and place, with no scene flowing directly into the next. The overall effect is jarring and surreal, and over time the visual echoes give a sense of history continuously repeating itself. I can appreciate the movie for these elements, but I fear I'm missing the key knowledge needed--an understanding of what it's like to live in Beirut. I feel this is very much a Beirut film, about Beirut and for residents of Beirut. And as much as I liked this movie, it certainly doesn't make Beirut look inviting enough for me to spend time there to understand the movie better.

And that was my day at the Arab Film Festival.

Jason goes to the Arab Film Festival--Opening Night

This is my second year of going to the Arab Film Festival (formerly Cinemayaat), and the opening night movie was "Making Of". A Tunisian film about a suicide bomber. I'm actually somewhat grateful that I didn't write about this movie right away (opening night was last Thursday, 3 days ago), because a little time has given me more perspective on it. My initial reaction was that if it weren't for a particular conceit this movie uses, it would be a well-made but fairly standard troubled-youth-becomes-suicide-bomber movie. Now that I've told that to a few people, I have to stop myself and marvel at how jaded I am that I believes there's a standard formulaic suicide bomber movie. But as to that conceit--occasionally Bahta, the main character, breaks character and becomes lead actor Lofti Abdelli. He launches into arguments with director Nouri Bouzid, and multiple times threatens to quit the movie. What you have to realize is these scenes aren't staged, they're completely real. He didn't even know Nouri Bouzid decided to put them in the movie until he saw it himself. In this way the movie contains a debate about itself, which is pretty cool. It also gives the title a double meaning--the making of a terrorist and the making of the movie. But this is why I'm glad I waited to do this review--at first I was ambivalent as to whether the breaking the 4th wall scenes really enhanced the movie, or just apologized for the movie (or inoculated itself against the same criticisms Lofti makes). But after a few days, I'm convinced they work and enhance the movie.

Oh yeah, and I was struck by how much sexual frustration led to him becoming a suicide bomber. To the point where when he first tries on his dynamite vest he grabs a handful of dynamite and shoves it down his pants, so he has a half-dozen big red explosive cocks sticking out. Perhaps I'm completely missing the point, but that's comedy!

And the star Lofti Abdelli was there for the screening (after having some trouble at the airport--surprise!) Here he was at the Q&A, where he was charming and hilarious:


Then I meant to go to the after party, but the bus was late (had to go from the Clay theater to Medjool in the Mission District, a little far to walk). So after waiting over 30 minutes, I walked down to Geary, met a bunch of drunkards leaving a Jimmy Buffet concert at the Filmore, and took the bus down to the BART station and then home. Sorry I missed the after party, last year they had great food.

And that's the beginning of the Arab film festival this year. I went and saw 3 more shows Saturday. But I don't have time to write about that now, I gotta head off to the San Jose Jewish Film Festival now.