Criticism is bitter medicine, and it was equally hard to swallow at the screening of “Maa Salaama Jamil (Go in Peace Jamil) as at its aftermath.
Omar Shargawi’s directorial début kicks off with an impending sense of doom as the title character is tying loose ends and saying goodbyes.
Set in Copenhagen, the story documents the in-fighting between Sunni and Shia clusters, and the never-ending enmities motivated by the need for revenge.
In a world where violence begets violence, there is no deus-ex-machina, no god-in-a-machine that can come and stop the wheels set in motion. When we enter into the story, Jamil himself knows his days – even hours – may be numbered.
A tightly-knit plot, in which the action takes place in the span of a day, gradually reveals Jamil’s predicament: he has avenged his mother’s death, and now he has to pay the price.
Despite platitudes readily offered by the his father about choosing the moral high ground, the dialogue also reveals sympathy for Jamil who is humiliated and resentful his mother’s death was not avenged by the father.
“You even made me shake his hand in the market once, says Jamil.
Jamil’s friend, Omar, and his father – the voices of reason – also die among the in-fighting. Even Jamil’s son Adam, whose significance as “mankind is all-too evident, is not spared death. The movie ends on a note from the Quran, “Whosoever kills a human being, it shall be as if he has killed all mankind.
The score-settling which drives the plot is further complicated by Sunni-Shia divisions. It is difficult to ignore the powerful message: the “other, the enemy, could well be a reflection of the self.
Questions and concerns following the screening of “Go in Peace Jamil revealed that the message perhaps hit home a little too hard: “Why is there so much violence? and “Why does the Egyptian man lick his ice-cream in a disgusting fashion? and “Why do your camera close-ups make people look ugly? and “What image will this portray of Arabs to a foreign audience?
Audience remarks, “Are they not Egyptian? Do they not speak Arabic? unfortunately began the conference.
The panelists reacted to the comment, and a simmering sense of discord reigned the full length of the press conference.
The violence, Shargawi points out, is not much more than your average Hollywood action movie. Only five people actually die. The difference is that violence is not diluted – or what can be worse, glorified.
“I disagree with entertaining people with violence, said Shargawi. Instead, the film takes another “close-up at violence, which does make one want to turn away in disgust.
The relish with which the man ate ice-cream was perhaps to contrast it with the following decisiveness with which he throws it away when he learns it may contain a hint of pork.
This adherence unflinchingly offered to dietary dictates, however, does not extend to laws such as “Thou shall not kill – a point driven home in a moral-of-the-story fashion when Jamil’s father cooks pork and asks him to eat it, comparing it to other sins. The didactic nature of this presentation hurt the aesthetic sensibilities of many audience members.
Yet a more subtle reminder of moderation is also present in the character of Omar played by Shargawi himself. Of mixed Sunni-Shia parentage, the character of Omar reminds Jamil early on in the movie not to generalize adherents of the “other religious point of view.
Expressing that the persons depicted close-up were no uglier than your average next-door neighbor, Shargawi’s retort “You must have a very ugly neighbor, did little to quell the seething tension.
“I have no intention of offending Egyptians, said the Danish-Palestinian Shargawi, who has family roots in Egypt as well. Hassan El-Sayed plays El-Masri because he is Egyptian, “If Hassan was Iraqi, he’d have been Iraqi in the film. All of the main cast is of half-Danish parentage.
Perhaps that is why one lady erupted into a commentary on how the movie itself was an offence tantamount to the cartoons of Prophet Mohamed produced by Danish media.
Yet despite being a Denmark entry, director Shargawi points out, “the film has nothing to do with Denmark.
It is a movie about “everyday life unfortunately, said the director. “It has tough issues in it. Shargawi reiterated that his responsibility was not to make “happy, smiling images, but “We have to look inside.
The story is part auto-biographical, said Shargawi, and partly inspired by stories of friends, family and events around the world.
As for how the movie was received, Shargawi said that audiences abroad had identified with the characters and despite not being Arab, and had understood it as a tale of divisions.
Without a Romeo-and-Juliet saga or a self-righteous victory of good-over-evil to sweeten the plot, the reflection of the petty Sunni-Shia differences and excessive violence does not appear the fairest of them all.
