Film talk: Sunday 17 December

What is an "Arabic" film? Films from Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria are as Arabic as ones from Egypt and Lebanon. Yet they are intrinsically different. The cultural differences that exists in the genre of Arabic film should be celebrated if these movies are to make it in the international forum.

When I wrote my earlier article on the Algerian-Tunisian film Barakat!, produced by Djamila Sahraoui, I did not know that the word barakat means enough.

But when the director told me the definition, I looked at her face wondering about this Arabic word which means something in one Arab country but means some thing else in another one.

However, the film's name was not the issue. The issue is the participation of the film as part of a big host of Tunisian, Moroccan and Algerian films, not included with Arab films.

After viewers saw many Arabic films they became convinced that local cultures create their own movies.

I mean that no Lebanese or Egyptian film looks like Barakat! or any other film from Tunis, Algeria and Morocco, in terms of the way of telling the story or the artistic keys. Each film has its own identity and leaves a different imprint.

This is good for the Arabic cinema, and will definitely help to enrich it. It is better for Arabic movies to be strongly connected with their different cultures that exist in each Arab country, but at the same time be connected with their regional and international boundaries.

This raises a question which has been repeatedly raised: Can Arabic film go international, and how?

Raising a question about Arabic cinema is based on a general view which considers the Arabic cinema as one.

However, the fact is that there are many styles even within the Egyptian cinema — at least four kinds. There are good films that can go beyond borders such as Emarit Ya'qoubian and other good films that cannot pass borders, except through regional film festivals, such as Cut and Paste and, of course, bad films that cannot go beyond any borders.

Al Awadi's example

It is known that not every good Arabic film is qualified to go international or even leave a good imprint on the highly educated audiences at the Venice and Cannes festivals or any other international film festivals.

The reasons behind this are no more than simply artistic ones.

Meanwhile, the film Cut and Paste talks about a real social problem that mirrors the hopes and passions of a certain category of people whom no-one notices.

Yet Hala Khalil's Cut and Paste has been welcomed, gaining a good turnout by educated people, organisers of international festivals and distributors as well.

It was the festival's pride and pleasure that a number of Arabic films — no matter how limited the number was — took part and were the centre of attention. These films were viewed by a number of US programmers and distributors who put the films on the agenda of films they would like to take to next year's film festivals in the US.

One of those films — and perhaps one of the most successful of these Arab films — was The Storm from the South by Walid Al Awadi, which was chosen for upcoming US festivals, and was the reason for business meetings between himself and American producers. These producers presented Al Awadi's company Desert Door with cooperation contracts.

Despite the fact that this film was not the best Arabic film for this year, nevertheless, it was among the best.

The intelligence of this filmmaker was in choosing music preferred by Western listeners.

In the midst of today's world, where Islamic questions dominate, the filmmaker chose the story of three women, hoping to be elected to parliament, and how they failed to do so. All the technical back-up of the film was excellent and served the topic beautifully.

The way we eat

"Hope is not to do anything but wait" says a character in Richard Linklater's new film, Fast Food Nation, which has been shown at DIFF). He says this in the midst of an exploration of today's lifestyles. The conversation expands inward and outward, the responsibility of world issues focusing on both governments and the masses.

Despite this, Fast Food Nation is not a political film initially, but extends its search towards politics, discussing hamburgers in the US, as the first fast food.

It discusses the way hamburgers are cooked and what we expect to find inside them. The film also looks at immigrant Mexican labourers who come to the US looking for jobs and end up as virtual slaves.

Fast Food Nation starts with a labour meeting scene in a hamburger company. We envisage McDonalds, but the imaginary name of the company is Mickey. The initial scene of the film shows a hamburger being carried to a table. The piece of meat is evident for us to see. The camera approaches the hamburger to reveal the plate with French fries and a cold soda drink. There is something unusual in the meat. Its colour does not look right.

The second take is of a dog. The dog does not have a role in the film and the take is a passing one, but does indicate that something is fundamentally wrong with the "Fast Food Nation". Are we eating dog meat? Is someone putting other types of meat in our regular beef?

There is worse to come. This is when you realise this will be the last time you eat hamburgers in your life, in a fast food restaurant, or in any other restaurant at that. Even in the US.

This picture gets clearer through the first part of the film. The group wants to issue a protest leading to setting cows free from their barns. The group goes on to discuss another more contemporary issue. One of the young men present says we are living in the age of Homeland Security. Any activity contradicting the general trend will be labelled as a terrorist act.

Another young man answers him by saying: Confronting this stance is the real national action.

Richard Linklater uses many known faces in limited roles. Greg Kinnear is on the screen for half an hour only, Bruce Willis for ten minutes and Luiz Guzman is a bus driver who carries the illegal Mexican workers.

There are also a number of new young faces, such as Ashley Johnson as a restaurant tender who takes part in illicit activities.