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Reviews
Wadjda (2012)
Review by Ayan Nurkesh
To begin with, a movie tells us an ordinary story about kindness and a little girl that has a strong sense of purpose...
Wadjda (2012)
Review by Ayan Nurkesh
To begin with, a movie tells us an ordinary story about kindness and a little girl that has a strong sense of purpose...
Wadjda (2012)
Review by Ayan Nurkesh
To begin with, a movie tells us an ordinary story about kindness and a little girl that has a strong sense of purpose...
Inside Mecca (2003)
Movie review by Ayan Nurkesh
National Geographic documentary directed by Anisa Mehdi in 2003 shows the inside view on the Hajj, an annual Islamic pray ritual. Since the journey to Mecca is not affordable by all Muslims and restricted for participation by non-muslims, the movie has a great value for a wide audience. Over two million people come to see the Kaaba and have a chance to pray in the holy places, reaching the spiritual relief as well as a sense of accomplishment obligated by religion. Noteworthy to mention that a film was shooted from a view of three pilgrims Ismail Mahbob, Khalil Mandhlazi, and Fidelma O'Leary who lives in different parts of the world. This enables us to understand the challenges of the Hajj and eventually the meaning of the ritual better. Taking into consideration that even hurdles of three persons look difficult, the various issues of the two million brings an idea of the scale and importance of the event to the local Muslim society. Nevertheless, all pilgrims regardless of the struggles aim to finish seven circumambulations of the Kaaba for the conscious perception of the true brotherhood, equality of the people, and the reorganization of thoughts about life purpose according to the Islamic teachings. In the following review analysis of Ismail, Khalil, and Fidelma comments are going to be made. In addition, interpretations of some rituals based on the personal understanding of the material will be mentioned.
The unique experience of the Hajj is told by Fidelma or Dr. O'Leary, a professor at the university and the US citizen of European ethnic group. Grown by the Catholic family and living in a society with a majority being Christians leads to numerous difficulties for the new Muslim, including psychological pressure from the relatives. Starting from long away preparations of learning the right instructions of the Hajj in regular weekly meetings and ending with buying special clothes to fulfill the pilgrim requirements at the place. Interestingly, being a women traveling alone Fidelma needs a formal agreement from son. After arrival to Mecca, the optimistic mood and passion for spiritual satisfaction motivate her to use the advantages of the pray in a holy place. Eventually, regardless of the alienation feeling, she finds that other Muslims treat her respectfully not less than others and even be glad to know her by giving suggestions to continue the path. This helps Fidelma to finish the Hajj and safely return home.
The second story is about Khalil Mandhlazi, a preacher who explains the Islam during weekly
radio broadcasts in a rural area of South Africa. Khalil being a religious person aims to visit Kaaba for the first time and this makes him nervous. This gives him an opportunity to attain spiritual needs and complete the fifth Islamic obligation. However, during traveling, he finds out that not all Muslims follow the sense of brotherhood regardless of origin, one of the main teachings of the religion. Moreover, Khalil tries to do more goods at the place by making donations for poor families at the mountains and for his surprise sees that nobody did the same before. Nevertheless, finally, Khalil finishes all rituals, "refreshes" the understanding of the true meanings of Islam in a sense (the main goal of Hajj), and leaves the Al-Haram mosque.
The last pilgrim, Mr. Ismail Mahbob, a Malaysian entrepreneur who travels with his wife. The financial success in the business, broker company environment, social circle, and certain habits makes the Hajj a challenging trip as the conditions of walk in a crowd differs from the ordinary life in Malaysia. However, being a Muslim Ismail with no doubts prepares for a long trip. One of the first requirements that he meets is the wearing simple two cloth to close the body parts. This unifies pilgrims by giving them a feeling of equality in front of Allah. In addition, it challenges the inside ego and the arrogance, the quality of special usefulness to wealthy people as Ismail. At the end of the Hajj, Ismail looks to attain the meaning of Islam as a religion of equality and understand the weakness of human being.
To conclude, the followers of the Islam annually performs the Hajj, a direction of daily prays, with common initial reason and leaves the Mecca being "a different" person after a giving thorough thoughts at the place to the certain personal problems/wishes. Probably the whole atmosphere in the Kaaba, a center of the universe, provides the opportunity for the pilgrims to gather "fresh" religious spirit according to the Muslims' believes. The movie demonstrated the values interpreted by Islam in terms of individual needs and shows that annual Hajj that is obligated to do once in a life (if affordable) is important and a central point of spiritual power for religious Muslims. We see that finally all characters fulfill the goals and return with a satisfaction regardless of long daily walks in a crowd under hot weather and other numerous physically uncomfortable conditions. The director, Anisa Mehdi, creatively shows the true meaning of individual rituals which I believe is of essential value to understand the Hajj for the common audience.
Al-risâlah (1976)
Movie Review by Ayan Nurkesh
The story of shepherd bringing peace into Arabian Peninsula
or The Rise of Islam
Being the part of an honored family, Muhammad is still working as an ordinary shepherd person in the Mecca of 600s A.D. The prevalence of the bad mores, lust and squander, inequality of women and slaves, and avarice have been contradicting his view on how the life should be. Especially, the existence of paganism (believe in many gods) had been bothering him the most. Regardless of his age (40 years) Muhammad frequently climbs on mountains for a few days to give the ideas about a "true life" thought, demonstrating the similarity of a widespread practice of the modern world religions - asceticism. In both cases, the purpose of the solitude life far away from the urban area is to the reorganization of mind in terms of psychology and focus solely on one idea. In the film named "The Message", directed by Mustapha Akkad in 1976, the rise of Islam begins from the message of God through his angel, Gabriel, to Muhammad. This puts him into a great shock since now he is considered as a Prophet of religion according to the words from the angel. In the following movie review, the analysis will be made by taking into consideration the context of the period (600s). In addition, the attempt to find the features of the movie character that enabled the rise of a religion based on the provided information is going to be evaluated and the corresponding conclusion with a personal opinion will be reached.
As it was a case in other world religions, followers of the early Islamic period had suffered from local people, especially the state leaders. Rejection of polytheism by Muslims threatened local leaders since the uncontrolled civilians affected their economic profits from the annual pilgrimage of 360 gods by distant travelers. Even though, the issues of the following ancestor believe considered important, the main emphasis was the financial part as the growth of Muslims increased rapidly. Muhammad was known for his humanistic features, making the teachings and values widely accepted by relatives and close friends. Believe in true mores of life such as equal rights of women and men (the story of first women martyr), independence of sole (Bilal's disobedience), generosity (Abu Bakr's payments for releasing tortured slaves), and ethical behavior (rules restricting hurting children/women/elderly as a purpose of minimizing violence).
Another character that enabled to the Prophet to be the Top 1 among the most influential persons in a history was the wisdom. According to the Michael H. Hart "he was the only man in history who was supremely successful on both the religious and secular levels", 3-5 being Jesus, Buddha, and Confucius (Hart, M. 2001). The movie shows that before "The Message" from God, Muhammad was an illiterate person, thus he didn't learn special classes about politics, leadership, and war strategy. Nevertheless, he wisely allocates the soldiers during Badr conflicts and finds advantages of Peace Treaty which eventually leads to the conquest of Mecca. The mercy on atrocities of some characters after Mecca Conquest could be noted as a part of the wise decision as well, since the further spread of Islam to Vyzantium, Egypt, Persia, Abyssinia, and other strongest powers at the time. For instance, the acceptance of the most violent enemy in Badr conflict, Salah ad-Din, results in future conquests of Egypt and Syria.
Before Hegira to Medina the movie demonstrates kindness and sacrifice of Prophet to the followers. During years of great suffer after forced exile from Mecca Muhammad, being relatively wealthy person after marriage with Hatidja (she was one of the most richest person in the city), gives all savings to people, hides in caves during Hegira (letting Muslims escape victimization by enemies), and actively involves in the construction of first mosque. This feature of the character proves his sincere intention to the people, rejecting any suggestions about money/comfort/rest regardless of his age at the time (he was about 60 years old). The strength of the first followers' faith after Muhammad death, demonstrated that the teachings about one God have completely replaced previous polytheism.
Collectively, the above discussions of Muhammad character bring an idea of what enabled him to be successful in a dramatic change of Arabian Peninsula from "dark period" to "golden years of advancement" and eventually spread of Islam to the world. Noteworthy to mention that the movie was the only representation of the history rather than the demonstration of all facts. Even though the content has been approved by Al-Azhar University, the most authoritative institute in Islamic studies, more data from historic studies are needed for the proper conclusion. The movie clearly shows the tight connection of the local culture to the beliefs of people, once more emphasizing the importance of context study approach. Overall, The Message movie is a good source to learn about the rise of Islam in the 7th century and further comparison with the other Abrahamic religions.
Reference
1. Hart, M. (2001). The 100: A Ranking of The Most Influential Persons In History. New York, NY: Citadel Press/Kensington Pub.
Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011)
Review from Ayan Nurkesh
The film tells about a sushi master or Itamae named Jiro who dedicated his whole life to the cooking of the Japanese dish. The movie has a great influence on people's understanding of "diligence at work" as well as its inspirational effect on personal motivation.
"There is always a room for improvement" says the master when explaining the reasons of his passion in work. This phrase reminds the key ideas of world level innovators like Steve Jobs or Elon Musk. Both of them figured out the ways to improve technologies at the time when everybody was confident in "impossibility" of such task. However, these people had been completely immersed in the idea and most importantly they worked for it every day for a long time before seeing the first successful results. Personally, I have such kind of associations with Jiro, when I saw him in the film, his dedication. Especially, "philosophy of Jiro's life" shows the features of true professional. The difference between this movie from a variety of motivational talks and what makes the movie really "practical" is that Itamae's dedication to these rules for 75 years. It is known that "hard work" can be interpreted differently depending on the person's strength of will. In the film, Jiro says that he had dreamed of ideal sushi to the extent that the ways of step by step improvements came to him during the sleep. Actually, some historical discoveries (e.g. Nicola Tesla, Dmitri Mendeleev) came to the people during sleep. Moreover, probably everyone had at least once experienced similar phenomena during when an issue has a great importance (e.g. a student seeing him/herself writing an exam in the dream).
To sum up, the movie is suggested for the audience who seeks to discover a living example of true dedication to the work. "Once a person decides on a job, he/she has to continue the work with full effort no matter what kind of difficulties encountered during the journey. That's how you enjoy the work" - Jiro Ono.