CAIRO: Stereotyping and bigotry have always been frowned upon and according to Independent Filmmaker Amr El Bayoumi, “first it was the drunken Irish, the greedy Jew with the big nose, the lazy Mexican bandit type, the gun loading drug dealing African American.
The storyline of Bayoumi’s short film Hot Towels addresses the issue that Arabs are still perceived as bad and dirty in the west. In the opening scene he presents, using graphic animation, three commonly used Arab models. The lazy harem Arab with women around him, the greasy Arab beggar and of course todays most popular stereotype is the violent suicide bomber.
The story begins when an Egyptian-American enters a barber shop in the U.S. and is confronted with blatant prejudice as the hairdresser and a customer whisper that he probably caught two suicide bombers and married off his sister at gun point during his recent visit to Egypt.
As well as portraying the fact that Arabs are perceived badly in the West, he also balances the film by showing that the opposite also exists. Across the globe in a barbershop in Egypt, the hairdresser talks about how everyone in America is rich. A customer also makes a comment that girls in the US are easy to sleep with.
The film goes back and forth between the two barbershops, one in Washington DC and the other in Cairo, highlighting the ignorance in both cultures and questioning the issue of identity.
As an Arab-American himself, Bayoumi feels that Arab immigrants either become more Arab than they are at home. Or on the contrary drop their roots, act like they don’t even speak Arabic, grow their hair and go by the name of Moe instead of Mohamed. As well as having undeniable political meaning, Bayoumi says it’s not an agenda, just simply a perspective. Most of the scenes and dialogue of the film are based on reality, things he has said or thought and things he has heard and seen.
The filming and editing are quite impressive in the film, especially because Bayoumi never studied film and is actually a lawyer at Orascom Telecom. The script is simple and the dialogue is natural and very familiar. The strength of the film is probably in the humor, as some of the scenes are absolutely hilarious.
The most memorable scene is the “Rent A Rab skit where two American actors role play some of the parts Arabs have played in previous films. It is filmed as an advertisement in a fantasy segment and is extremely amusing and very realistic.
Another brilliant scene is when an elderly Arab man in Virgina, is sitting in a garden, playing the oud and singing “sweet dreams are made of these … (The English song originally sang by Annie Lennox) and a woman comes up and belly dances to the tune.
This is Bayoumi’s second short film. When he first moved to Egypt six years ago he made a film called Our Food comparing and contrasting the political and economic aspect of local food versus international fast food. It was a finalist in the short film category in the Italian international film festival in 2002.
Hot Towels is 24 minutes and was written, produced and directed by Bayoumi. The cast is made up of family and friends. He is currently working on a feature film, but for now the project is still a secret.
