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Bahraini film makes waves in conservative world of Gulf cinema
 Bahraini actress Haifa Hussein at the closing ceremony of the Middle East International Film Festival in Abu Dhabi last October. (Photo by Marwan Naamani/AFP/Getty Images) |
BAHRAIN - Maryami, a daring new film from Bahrain, has set the cat among the pigeons in the conservative Gulf with critics, film journalists and audiences at loggerheads over its depiction of the life of a widow who becomes a dancer after the death of her muezzin husband.
The film “endeavour[s] to introduce, with deliberate boldness, an element of the unexpected to the common themes of the infant Gulf film industry” according to AFP. It unfolds in the 1960s when the heroine, Maryami, finds herself obliged to turn to dancing after the death of her husband, the muezzin of a local mosque. Having shocked her neighbours, Maryami falls under the spell of a young man who suffers from schizophrenia. Passionately in love, they marry against the wishes of his parents, since as a dancer she offends their conservative beliefs.
Produced by Omran Media, the film unfolds in a series of brief vignettes accompanied by running monologues from the two lead characters. It highlights the difficulties of Maryami and the pressure she faces from the local community and her beloved, a poor fisherman who asks her to give up dancing at the homes of wealthy patrons.
The version of the film previewed by critics and journalists contained no dancing scenes, other than one expressive sequence in the film’s opening scene, which was retained for its aesthetic value.
Emirati writer Mohamed Hassan who penned the screenplay said the film was an attempt to “empathise with Gulf women through the heroine”. He said that it is one of a series of films he has written on this theme, Bint Mariam among them. Hassan added that Gulf cinema was still young and needed to seek “authenticity in converting stories to film”.
Meanwhile female lead, Bahraini actress Fatma Abdel Rahim, said that she was proud of the film saying its boldness is beautiful and represents a sea change in Gulf cinema.
Director Ali Al-Ali said he made deliberate use of focus and symbolism for a film made with the festival circuit, not the box office, in mind. He intends to submit it, his sixth film, for viewing at the Gulf Film Festival in Dubai later this year. Al-Ali has already entered several of his short films in previous competitions in Bahrain and the Gulf.
He added that Maryami, while not based on a true story from Bahrain but on the imagination of Mohamed Hassan Ahmed could have come “from any country in the Arab world.”
[AFP, Al-Ra’i newspaper (Kuwait)]
Reader Comments
In general, the Gulf has begun to show series and films with non-Islamic ideas, I mean, superficial Western ideas. That is why we should really think of ideas to reform Arab society, rather than destroying it. We should make an effort to become fully active in society, like Amr Khalid, and to present ideas that push Islam in a positive direction.
Thank God for the blessing of Islam. It is full of blessings. You refer to the Egyptian nation, but not the Lebanese nation. Every society has good and bad within it, though. May God guide us all.
The screenwriter is silly.
The best film is Haifa.
The topic is a little bit brave, but if you change the profession of the husband it would be better. Honestly, it's a new and beautiful idea.
Honestly I don't like the idea of the film. I feel like Gulf films and series have started to be bad and change for the worse. Unfortunately it could be an imitation of Turkish and Egyptian films and honestly I don't want to see the film.
I have nothing to say except may God guide our Arab nations.
Honestly, it's the first time I've heard of a widow of a muezzin becoming a dancer in the Gulf. I seek refuge with Allah. The Gulf people and especially the Bahraini people have nothing to do with stories like this. It looks like the person who had the idea for the film is not made of Gulf material and he has another goal to spread such ideas. God knows him better
It looks like the director's mother is either Lebanese or Egyptian. This is one of the problems of naturalization which does not have controls or conditions. Why is her husband a muezzin? Those media witches that we were warned about in this period of time are the same as Pharaoh's magicians and all tyrant leaders. May God help the nation of Muhammed (s) a lot of them are from among the hypocrites. May God alone protect us from them.
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