Nisimazine Abu Dhabi 2011 #7

Nisimazine Abu Dhabi

‫مجلة تصدرها نيسي ماسا ـ الشبكة االوربية للسينما الشابة‬

2011 ‫ أكتوبر‬20 ‫ الخميس‬- 7‫العدد‬

A magazine by NISI MASA, European Network Of Young Cinema

#7, Thursday 20 October 2011

from The Reasons of the Heart by Arturo Ripstein

‫نيسيمازين‬

Arturo Ripstein A Separation Mapping Subjectivity ‫ارتورو ريبستين‬ ‫ابتسامات ليلة صيف‬ ‫خرائط الذات‬

‫ ا فتتا حية‬// editorial

by Fuad Hindieh ‫فؤاد هندية‬ ‫يتراكض الجميع للوصول في الموعد المناسب الى صالة‬ ‫ عليهم الحضور قبل نصف ساعة على األقل لكي‬.‫العرض‬ ،‫ إذا لم تكن لديك تذكرة‬.‫يضمنوا أماكنهم في القاعة‬ »‫فستضطر للوقوف في طابور شبيه بـ»طابور الجمعية‬ ‫ أما إن حالفك‬.‫الذي اعتدنا أن نشاهده في السينما المصرية‬ ‫ ألقى‬.‫ فستتمكن من الدخول والتمتع بتجربة السينما‬،‫الحظ‬ ‫ وتمنوا لي «مشاهدة‬،‫المتطوعون نظرة على تذكرتي‬ .‫مصرين على قول جملتهم هذه باإلنكليزية‬ ّ ،»‫ممتعة‬ ‫ كي‬،‫يقوم الجمهور المتحمس بإجراء عملية مسح للمكان‬ .‫يسارع إلى احتالل المقاعد المناسبة لمشاهدة أكثر متعة‬ ‫أما أنا فقد اخترت أحد الصفوف األخيرة وتمترست في مقعد‬ .‫وسطي‬ ‫ إال من بعض أصوات‬،‫وعم الصمت‬ ّ ‫امتألت القاعة وانطفأت األنوار‬ ‫ ومن مصدر خلفي‬.‫كرمشة رقائق البطاطا المقلية والبوشار‬ ‫شع ضوء من البهاء سقط على الشاشة البيضاء؛ ضوء يكتنف‬ ّ .‫سحر القصة والشخصيات التي ستبهر الجالسين في الظلمة‬ ‫ استحوذ مشهد الصالة المحتشدة بالجمهور على‬،‫للحظات‬ ‫ هل ما نقوم به كصناع‬:‫ دافعًا بي إلى التساؤل‬،‫انتباهي‬ ‫للسينما على هذه الدرجة من األهمية لكي يستقطب‬ ‫ تمنحني األمل‬،‫كل هؤالء؟ بالتأكيد كانت إجابتي إيجابية‬ ‫ وتجعلني أستمتع أكثر‬،‫كشخص يعمل في مجال السينما‬ .‫بهذه اللحظة‬ ‫ حتى سارع أحد‬،‫ما إن انتهى المشهد األخير من الشريط‬ ‫منظمي المهرجان بلياقة واضحة إلى دعوة مخرج العمل إلى‬ ‫ لقد كان تصميم‬.‫المنصة لكي يخوض نقاشًا مع الجمهور‬ ‫ لذا تسمرت في‬،‫الصوت واإلخراج الفني في الفيلم جيدين‬ ‫مكاني من أجل معرفة اسمي الفنيين اللذين أنجزا العمل‬ ،‫عمت الفوضى المكان‬ ّ ‫ لكن لألسف‬،‫بموهبة وتميز كبيرين‬ .‫ خرج من خرج وبقي من بقى‬.‫وانطفأ ضوء الشاشة السحرية‬ ،‫ فسرحت ثانية بخيالي‬.‫وقف المخرج وتسلطت األضواء عليه‬ ‫علي‬ ّ ‫ «هل يجب أن أكون مخرجًا كي تُ سلط‬:‫ألسأل نفسي‬ .»‫االضواء؟ ماذا عن باقي طاقم العمل؟‬ ‫ فهنالك أبطال لم يستطع‬.‫جاءت قصتك ناقصة أيها المخرج‬ .‫الجمهور قراءة أسمائهم بعد مشهدك األخير‬ ‫ وباعتباره المكان الذي نقدم فيه‬،‫إن مسؤولية المهرجان‬ ‫ أن يسلط الضوء على كل من شارك في هذا العمل‬،‫إبداعتنا‬ .‫ ال أن نتجاهله ألي سبب كان‬،‫الفني‬

Everybody is rushing to reach the screenings on time, they need to arrive at least half an hour early to guarantee their seats. If you don’t hold a ticket, you may be subjected to standing in a queue as if you were queuing for food stamps. If you are lucky, you may be able to get through and continue your film experience. The volunteers checked my ticket and wished me a pleasant viewing, insisting on saying it in English.The enthusiastic audience floods into the hall, scanning the area for the best seats to maximize their enjoyment. As for me, I chose to pounce on a middle seat in the last row. The hall filled up and the lights dimmed and silence spread in the hall apart from the noise of potato chips and popcorn crunching.

Light began streaming down from a source at the back of the hall and onto the white screen in front of us, and the magic contained in stories and characters exploded in the dark to amaze the crowd.

For a moment, the sight of the overflowing hall drew my attention and engulfed my thoughts and made me wonder if what we do as cinema makers is really as significant as it seems and warrants such vast numbers? Of course as someone working in the film world, my answer was positive, to give myself hope and derive some pleasure out of the moment.

Minutes later, the last scene in the movie ends and one of the organizers of the festival very gently invited the director of the movie to the podium to start a Q & A. As the sound and the production design in the film were excellent, I was pinned to my seat in anticipation to find out the names of the two talents behind the work. Unfortunately however, the magic screen’s lights went off and disorder ensued in the hall as some people left and others remained in their seats. As the director stood in the spotlight on the podium, I asked myself “do I have to be a director in order to be encompassed by light? What about the rest of the other crew members?” Your story, Mr. Director, was incomplete, for there are people involved in the creative process of making the film whose names the audience did not get to see on the screen.

NISIMAZINE ABU DHABI

Thursday 20 October 2011/# 7 A magazine published by the NISI MASA in the framework of a film journalism workshop for young film journalists from Europe and the Arab World with the support of the Abu Dhabi Film Festival

‫ هيئة التحرير‬EDITORIAL STAFF ‫ ماثيو داراس‬:‫المدير المسؤول‬ Director of Publication Matthieu Darras ‫ مارجه ألدرس‬:‫التصميم الفني‬/‫رئيس التحرير‬ Editor-in-Chief/Layout Maartje Alders ‫ جي وايسبيرغ و زياد الخزاعي‬:‫المشرفان‬ TutorS Jay Weissberg

Ziad Khuzai ‫المساهمون في العدد‬

‫جبهة تحرير‬, ‫محمد بشير‬, ‫زياد عبد الصمد‬ ‫فيليبو‬, ‫فؤاد هندية‬, ‫الشريط السينمائي‬ ‫مونيكا غيمبوتايتة‬, ‫زامبون‬ Contributors to this issue

Ziad Abdul Samad, Mohamed Beshir Monika Gimbutaitė, Fuad Hindieh Celluloid Liberation Front Filippo Zambon

NISI MASA

rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis 99 75010, Paris, France Phone: +33 (0)9 60 39 63 38 europe@nisimasa.com www.nisimasa.com

The festival has a responsibility, as a platform for us to show our creativity, to give credit for each single person who worked in the movie and to highlight them, rather than lower the dimmer switch without any valid excuse.

MARTINA LANGZambon (AUSTRIA) ‫زمبون‬BY ‫فيليبو‬ :‫ صورة‬by Filippo

,

picture of the day / ‫صورة اليوم‬

A Separation

review / ‫عرض نقدي‬

Asghar Farhadi, Iran Narrative Competition

Ashgar Farhadi’s A Separation (Jodaeiye Nader az Simin) is a morally challenging and powerful drama about modern Iranian society, although the themes that are being analyzed are universal and understandable to everyone.

An unhappily married couple wants to split up.

Simin wants to leave Iran for her daughter’s future, but Nader refuses to emigrate because his old father is Alzheimer’s ravaged. The film starts in court where both try to explain situation from their own perspectives. As man and woman sit apart, avoiding looking to each other, we have a feeling that they have already separated. We cannot see the exact figure of the judge, as the characters talk directly to the camera.

Audience becomes a judge and this happens to be the key to the whole film.

The Temple

Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni, India - Showcase

One mistake leads to another and terrible mess starts.

As in his previous film About Elly Asghar Farhadi is interested not in action itself but in consequences it may cause and, most importantly, in reactions and moral dilemmas of people. Characters in the film are separated from each other by sex, age, social class or religious beliefs, yet they all make the same mistakes when they try to convince themselves that a small lie is not really a lie.

There is no other word to describe the acting besides brilliant. Every similarity as well as every single difference is shown as clear as possible, avoiding exaggeration or overacting. Clear structure of the narrative and powerful dialogues create an atmosphere of being right in the middle of what is happening, feeling the same anxiety and suspense as the characters feel. Farhadi doesn’t take sides. In this psychologically complex drame he uses clear and sensitive voice to prove that usually we cannot blame just one or another – everyone may be right, everyone may be wrong.

Monika Gimbutaitė

Thursday 20/10 VOX 5 - 9:00 PM Friday

21/10

ADT - 4:00 PM

The Temple (Deool) is a good example of ‘Indian’ cinema made to play to a certain kind of hipster, film-festival friendly audience. Single-layered, uni-dimensional narratives with slick editing and camerawork seem to be the norm in these movies, with a handful of social issues thrown in for good measure.

The story is set in a rural village in Maharashtra facing drought-like conditions.

Resources are scarce but goodwill and common-sense prevails. Development is on its way, slowly but surely through the village leader and a few elders. The serenity is rocked by the news of a cowherd who has an inspired dream and the entire village is convinced of its truth.

The rest of the film is about the consequences of this incident.

The movie loses the plot halfway through. Perhaps it attempts to play it safe, not wanting to hurt any right-wing sentiments. The aspirations of a peasant seeking a higher level of belief are hilarious, but only to a certain extent. After such a brilliant start, I felt the director Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni explains too much and gives his take on religion instead of allowing the story to be carried

out in its own crazy course. The acting is the highlight of the movie. There were delightful performances by the inimitable Nana Patekar, Dilip Prabhavalkar, and Girish Kulkarni. However the women actors, including the cow, manage to steal the show whenever they share the screen with these stalwarts. Maybe certain special appearances could have been avoided and the funds better used in employing a few old-school writers.

The camera-work is also noteworthy, masterfully bringing out a feel of sensuality. The rural landscape is captured in all its glory and the interiors of rural households beautifully composed. The cinematographer also plays a big role during the enjoyable song sequences, with a liberal use of moving shots without appearing excessive. The first half of the film was simply joie-de-vivre with characters full of energy and potential.

And yet after establishing the captivating storyline, it succeeds in driving the perfectly-running special-edition Ambassador Landmaster off a cliff.

Ziad Abdul Samad

‫ فيليبو زمبون‬:‫ صورة‬by Filippo Zambon

focus / ‫بقعة ضوء‬

‘Mapping Subjectivity: Experimentation in Arab Cinema from the 1960s to Now’ was organized by ArtEast and MoMA in New York where it was initially presented before travelling to Abu Dhabi via London.

Conceived as a three-part nomadic exhibition, ADFF is presenting this year two films from the second instalment and will offer more throughout the coming year. Nisimazine felt it appropriate to reflect upon the significance and role of experimentation in (Arab) cinema.

The cinema of the Middle East is often stereotypically seen under the restrictive frame of realism. Euro-American audiences tend to associate formal experimentation with Western culture and often consider it an exclusive characteristic of their own aesthetic tradition.

This widespread assumption underlines a deep preconception that sees non-Western from Chronicles of a Disappearance by Elia Suleiman

cultures unable to reflect upon themselves and to deconstruct their own formal conventions. Dominant narratives often depict Arab countries as prisoners of their own culture while the very same term, ‘culture’, stands for creativity and critical production when used in a ‘democratic’ context. Curiously enough, typical traits of experimental cinema happen to be characteristic of Islamic visual culture that “quite consciously sought to emphasize surface over shape and gave itself the means to be as free as possible of an object’s or mo-

nument’s physical properties.”(Oleg Grabar, ‘The Formation of Islamic Art’) Hence the predilection for flow over classical form, abstraction and open-ended signs and, most interestingly, embodied perception, are all elements we find in Islamic art. Since Islam does not contemplate the visual figuration of God, the body, unlike that of Christ, is not something to be represented but to be evoked.

Consequently, images, freed from the burden of figurative representation, suggest instead of dictate possible compositions whose final shape depends upon the viewer’s elaboration.

The arabesque, carpets’ hypnotic motifs and the very lettering of the Arabic language feature flowing signs where image, information and spirituality unfold from each other.

When rigid figurative patterns are missing the spectator is ‘forced’ to actively engage with the work of art in order to make sense of it. Only in the 20th century has Western art embraced abstraction through modernism and considered for the first time non-figurative representation. Western experimental filmmaking is very much the child of this artistic experience. To seek a correspondence between the image and reality is the quintessential concern of cinema. It is important to stress how this preoccupation derives from the Euro-American tradition from which Arab cinema descends and whose traits were obviously highly influenced by the former. If we

were to place cinema within the continuum of visual arts though, we would see that nonfigurative forms are very much part of Islamic history. Observed under this perspective the work of Elia Suleiman is not merely derived from Buster Keaton, of the rarefied narratives of European cinema and so on, but conceptually linked to an older history.

What this ongoing retrospective has been presenting is a largely unknown story of experimentation in the Arab world preceding international recognition of the director of Chronicle of a Disappearance. This is a movement that saw unexpected trans-continental collaborations without the need for patronizing distributors on the trail of gold, as in the case of Summer ’70 (Un Film Girato Nell’Estate del ’70) by Nagy Shaker and Paolo Isaja. Unable to finance their own ambitions with their individual budgets the Egyptian and Italian directors joined forces to produce an eerie mediation on change and difference with an original score by Suleiman Jamil and the unselfconscious beauty of a young American friend of theirs.

Freed from the distortions of historical linearization audiences will hopefully be invited to look beyond the surface to discover the unfolding beauty of a rich but sadly criminalized culture.

Celluloid Liberation Front

from Summer ’70 (Un Film Girato Nell’Estate del ’70) by Nagy Shaker and Paolo Isaja

Mapping Subjectivity

meet mahfouz Wednesday 20/10 VOX 3 - 9:00 PM

Principio y Fin

‫بداية و‬ ‫نهاية‬

Arturo Ripstein (Mexico, 1993)

‫ ارتورو ريبستين‬- ‫ المكسيك‬1993

Principio y fin (The Beginning and the End) is one of Arturo Ripstein’s well-known films. It is loosely adapted from Mahfouz’s novel of the same title about the story of a mother and four children after the death of the father. The death opens up a wormhole. The central theme is loss of social status, and how material comfort was the loose thread that bound the family members to each other. When the thread unravels, tears appear in the moral fabric of each other’s selves. The purity of love and the need to be loved are replaced by eroticism and lust.

‫يعد «البداية والنهاية» واحدًا من أشهر أفالم‬ ّ ‫بتصرف عن رواية‬ ‫ وهو مقتبس‬،‫أرتورو ربستين‬ ّ ،‫نجيب محفوظ التي تحمل العنوان نفسه‬ ‫وتروي قصة أم وأطفالها األربعة بعد موت‬ .‫والدهم الذي يؤدي إلى فتح هوة في حياتهم‬ ‫تتمحور ثيمة الفيلم حول خسارة المكانة‬ ‫ وكيف أن البحبوحة المادية كان‬،‫االجتماعية‬ ‫الخيط الرفيع الذي يربط أفراد العائلة ببعضهم‬ ‫ تبرز الدموع‬،‫ وحين ينقطع هذا الخيط‬،‫بعض‬ ‫في النسيج األخالقي في ذوات كل واحد من‬ ‫ أما نقاء الحب وحاجة المرء إلى أن‬.‫اآلخرين‬ .‫ُيحب فتحل محلها الشهوانية واإليروتيكية‬

The mother takes matters into her own hands and the subsequent events can be attributed to her decisions. The hope of the entire family falls on the shoulders of the youngest son, a smart and handsome college student who is on the verge of a scholarship and has his way with women. The women in love are stripped one after another of their dignity but their desires remain stronger than ever. Every female character loves him in one way or other. He is the bearer of other people’s dreams. When failure starts creeping into his life, he repays the love by cruelty.

The mother pays for the Faustian bargain.

The three other siblings at first can watch from the sidelines the mayhem unfolding. By helping the golden child of the family, the three of them in turn fall into the mix. The only sister, convinced of her ugliness, turns to a sinister profession like her eldest brothers. The second (the mother’s least favourite son) maintains a level of sanity to the end.

Biblical themes are interwoven into the narrative, the concepts of sin and punishment, heaven and hell, and acts of God. The family members cannot seem to place responsibility in their misfortunes on anything coherent and instead succumb to their fate. Ripstein’s works are rich in symbolism where mirrors, indoor carousels and crosses add meaning to the dark, constricting interiors of the living spaces. Music is used sparingly and at crucial intersections. A better title would have been Beginning of the End. Ripstein manages to portray a living breathing family drama out of a political work of Mahfouz. In fact this is an apt tribute to the writer, an international director of this repute, to choose his story to be the canvas of this brilliant movie.

‫ متحكمة بسير‬،‫تتولى األم زمام األمور‬ ‫ وتضع العائلة بأسرها أملها‬.‫األحداث التالية‬ ‫ وهو طالب جامعي ذكي‬،‫في االبن األصغر‬ ‫ على حافة الحصول على منحة‬،‫ووسيم‬ .‫دراسية وله طريقته الخاصة مع النساء‬ ‫النسوة العاشقات يجردن واحدة بعد األخرى‬ ‫ إال أن رغباتهن تبقى على قوتها‬،‫من كرامتهن‬ ‫نفسها؛ كل شخصية نسائية في الفيلم‬ ‫ إال أنه حامل أحالم‬،‫تحبه على هذا النحو أو ذاك‬ ،‫ وحين يبدأ اإلخفاق بالتسلل إلى حياته‬،‫اآلخرين‬ ‫ وتدفع األم ثمن‬.‫فإنه يقابل الحب بالقسوة‬ .‫الصفقة الفاوستية هذه‬ ‫في البداية يراقب اإلخوة الثالثة اآلخرون من‬ ‫ بمساعدة الولد الذهبي‬.‫بعد تكشف الخراب‬ ‫ فإن ثالثتهم يقعون بدورهم في‬،‫في العائلة‬ ‫ أما األخت الوحيدة المقتنعة‬.‫خضم هذا الخراب‬ ‫ فإنها تنحرف إلى المهنة الشنيعة‬،‫بدمامتها‬ ‫ أما االبن الثاني‬.‫شأنها شأن شقيقها األكبر‬ ّ ‫(الذي تبادله األم‬ )‫أقل قدر من الحب بين أوالدها‬ ‫فإنه يحافظ على قدر من سالمته العقلية في‬ .‫النهاية‬ ‫تتشابك الموضوعات الدينية في السياق‬ ‫ مع مفاهيم الخطيئة‬،‫السردي للفيلم‬ ‫الرب‬ ‫ وما ينزله‬،‫والعقاب والجنة والجحيم‬ ّ ‫ وال يبدو أن أفراد العائلة قادرين على‬.‫بالبشر‬ ‫أي سبب منطقي يحملونه يلقون عليه‬ ّ ‫إيجاد‬ .‫ فيستسلمون لمصائرهم‬،‫تبعات مصائبهم‬ ،‫تحتشد أعمال برستين بالرموز حيث المرايا‬ ‫ تضيف معنى‬،‫والدوامات الداخلية والصلبان‬ ‫ مؤلفة دواخل الفضاءات التي‬،‫إلى العتمة‬ ‫ أما الموسيقى‬.‫تعيش فيها الشخصيات‬ ‫ ويقتصر حضورها على‬،‫فتستعمل بتقشف‬ ّ ‫ولعل عنوانًا‬ .‫المنعطفات السردية الحاسمة‬ ‫من قبيل «بداية النهاية» كان ليكون أكقر‬ ‫ الذي ينجح فيه ربستين‬،‫دقة لهذا الفيلم‬ ‫في استخالص حكاية عائلية مؤثرة من رواية‬ ‫ في حقيقة األمر فإن‬.‫محفوظ السياسية‬ ‫ إذ اختار‬،‫الفيلم يشكل تحية مناسبة للكاتب‬ ‫ قصته لكي‬،‫مخرج يتمتع بشهرة ربستين‬ .‫تكون قماشة فيلمه البديع هذا‬ ‫زياد عبدالصمد‬

Ziad Abdul Samad

You can find all our coverage online on:

www.nisimazine.eu &

Watch video with Leonard Retel Helmrich explaining his camera technique vimeo.com/channels/199250

portrait / ‫بورترية‬

photo by Filippo Zambon

Arturo Ripstein Director of The Reasons of the Heart, Mexico Narrative Competition

I accidentally met director Arturo Ripstein in the Fairmont hotel lobby, during a small break between a long TV interview and a photo shoot. He gave me the firmest handshake I’ve had during the festival as of yet, and we sat down flipping through the jury catalogue, me introducing the faces from the region that he does not know, while he was introducing the European ones I haven’t met.

“The ideal film festival would go like this”, Ripstein said. “You go to Cannes or Venice and you enter the competition, and by that I mean that all applicants for a certain year receive the same script and the same amount of money, and they are given a year to come back with a film. You have a limited margin of change in the script and the budget according to your country, but the concept stands.

You present all the films in the next edition of the festival with no names attached to them except the country, so you would not know who the filmmaker was. Only then you will know who the best filmmaker was.” Ripstein takes the idea of film festivals to an Olympic echelon: “It’s like you take my three-week shoot film and put it in the same competition with Apocalypse Now. Where in the world would this be a fair competition?” The Mexican director concern about the way film festivals are developing stems from the increasing business control over them, and of course the American influence. He recalls a visit to Cannes years ago to find a huge advertisement of Godzilla: “I thought to myself, this festival has gone from Godard to Godzilla…God grief!”

Later that night Ripstein was introduced by Peter Scarlet, executive director of the ADFF, to a full theatre coming to attend the regional premiere of his entry for the narrative competition, The Reasons of the Heart (Las razones del corazón), a revision of the French classic ‘Madame Bovary’.

Once the screening started Ripstein walked out of the theatre and did not come back until the end credits.

He explained during the Q&A’s session how painful it is to watch his own films, and that the only way to forget what he has just finished is to work on a new film.

The next morning we had our official appointment for the photo shoot.

Sitting in an empty, dim café, the Mexican director pondered on his affinity to retrieve the same motives in his adaptations - he is one of the few filmmakers who still adapt classic novels onto the screen. His repeated patterns revolve around certain themes -- in his continuous one-shot scenes the camera floats around his troubled characters in their sordid surroundings, driven by their hearts to their doom. When

asked about these cinematographic recurrences, Arturo Ripstein simply replied: “There is a word in Spanish that goes for being stupidly stubborn, as in falling in the same hole twice, on the same day.”

As I was praising his stubbornness, he gave insight into the pressure he had to face with 1986’s Deep Crimson (Profundo carmesi), when one of the producers forced him to cut out twenty minutes for the release of the film. Our discussion then went on the question of censorship at large.

“It’s a phenomenon that deserves to be studied more, because one dismisses it instantly as an enemy, but it has a strange correlation with creation”, Arturo Ripstein explained. “ Censorship always existed. In my time it used to be moral, where you could not show breasts or harsh violence because it was immoral, then it became political.

Now it’s the worst kind of censorship: economic censorship. You could avoid moral censorship by being sly, and you avoid political censorship by using metaphors, but there is no argument against economic censorship.”

Despite his extensive carrier, dating back to working as Luis Buñuel’s apprentice, Arturo Ripstein does not consider himself a successful filmmaker. “My work is known to some cinephiles, but I’ve always been a peripheral artist, and now that I am an old filmmaker it’s even the periphery of the periphery.” After a smile, Ripstein concluded: “This is not modesty, quite the opposite. Modesty pertains to the well-bred and the secure, and I am not.”

Mohamed Beshir