Palestinian director manages to insult Egypt in a span of 15 minutes
Warning: containing some spoilers
Young Palestinian filmmaker Rami Abdul Jabbar has created a hard-to-ignore buzz around him since the debut of his adaptation of Youssef Idriss s banned novella Beit Men Laham (House of Flesh) a few years ago.
Beit Men Laham told the story of a poor young widow marrying a blind sheikh who s eventually seduced by her sexually repressed daughters.
The story is still considered highly controversial. It sheds light on a part of Egypt rarely highlighted by our tame media. But Abdul Jabbar’s decision to adapt the novella was not particularly laudable, though; any filmmaker would ve kicked up the same storm by merely adapting the story in any form.
The gusto director is back, perhaps with too much of a chip on his shoulder, in Feloos Mayeta (Dead Money), shown a number of times in late 2006 to a theater packed with young filmgoers, ostentatious cultural hipsters and puzzled critics.
Abdul Jabbar opted this time to make a film based on his original script of a story that is fundamentally Egyptian – or at least that is what he wanted it to be.
The 15-minute Feloos revolves around a couple of young men who sell clothes illegally down in Cairo’s squatters. One day, after a government crack down and a chase, the two are forces to leave their merchandise behind to save their skin.
Broke and indebted, their obese, archetypical mistress (el mo alemma) obliges them to collect some of her dead money – cashed owed her by acquaintances who never paid up.
(Warning: spoiler ahead)
Both of them follow their first target as he has sex with his young, lustful assistant, drinks a staggering number of beers, and engages in a meaningless quarrel before the camera moves away from them and to close in on the incoming cop heading to bust them. The end!
I apologize if I spoilt the film for you but honestly, the film has nothing to say and I can t find any reason for anyone to go see it (the film will be screened in the different film festivals throughout the year).
Abdul Jabbar s direction is no different from the hundreds of egotistical MTV-influenced directors. The excessive, relentless use of steady cam and his jarring frames are techniques that are amateurish, tired and reveal a director with a vision that s hollow and self-important.
The dialogue is composed of slang in an attempt to sound authentic but the director ends up losing any credibility he may have gained after his first film.
In short, the film is an exercise in utter pointlessness; a total waste of time.
Abdul Jabbar wants to convince us that he knows the reality behind the most marginalized places in this country. His short movie feels like a condescending cry of a man shouting: Look closely, here s your country with all its filth, hypocrisy and futility.
But it s not. And the reality is not just different than what Abdul Jabbar portrayed on screen, it s much harsher, crueler and more shocking. And it only takes a real Egyptian to figure that out.
That s why the film is insulting, not because of all the filth the filmmaker displays about society, but because of how he thinks he’s some superior figure who believes we re too foolish to accept and believe his supreme interpretation of our reality.
It s obvious that Abdul Jabbar wanted to create an Egyptian Mean Streets with the violence, the sex and profanity. But he misses his mark. And the end result is a pathetic effort to capture the spirit of a country that, at least for this film, he can t grasp
