Captain Abu Raed: Review

الأحد 27 كانون الثاني 2008

A scene from Captain Abu Raed

Written by Ramsey Tesdell

UPDATE – Captain Abu Raed wins the World Cinema Audience Award, and Recycle wins the World Cinema Cinematography Award. Congrats to both films!

More pictures of the cast and director here.

PARK CITY, UTAH – Many words have been written about Amin Matalqa’s Captain Abu Raed. With all the words written, all the interviews conducted, and pictures taken, funny that few had actually seen the film. Jordan has been holding her breath for the past several months as filming finished and editing began.

A collective sigh of relief was heard at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival when the gathering crowd enthusiastically greeted Matalqa and the cast in chilly Park City, Utah. Much anticipation had caused a rather nervous yet festive opening screening.

Captain Abu Raed is based on the age-old tale of an older person befriending children while encouraging them to reach for their dreams. While nothing unique, Captain Abu Raed enchants the youth of his neighborhood with made up stories. Abu Raed, who is a janitor at the airport, is mistaken for a pilot after wearing an old pilot’s hat home one day. Played by Nadim Sawalha, Captain Abu Raed encourages the children’s imagination with his epic stories, but also meddles with the children’s personal lives.

It is evident from the opening shot that this film was written with the backdrop of Amman in mind. The film mixed beautiful cinematography and gentle pans to capture Amman’s greatest visual assets: the magnificent views. Stunning views of the Citadel, the theater downtown, and even of the Royál Hotel on third circle, helped set a scene of wonder and excitement.Amin directing

I have no doubt that audiences in Jordan will be awe-struck when the see beautiful Amman on the big screen for the first time.

While slow at times, the film builds to an ending that few can predict. We follow the daily grind of Abu Raed as he learns to enjoy the attention paid by neighborhood kids. As he gets to know the children, he also learns of their struggles. For example, Tareq, played by Udey Al-Qiddissi is forced to sell candies on the streets by his dad instead of going to school. Abu Raed tries to help by buying the candy each morning, but he causes more problems than he solves.

A major highlight of the film is the performances of the actors. Kudos to Matalqa for his selection of actors and abilities as a director. Abu Murad (Ghandi Saber) offers an engaging and dynamic big screen debut, which no doubt will be the first of many more. As one audience member put it, “we expected that kind of performance from Nadim [Sawalha], but were treated with an equally stunning experience by Ghandi.”

Rana Sultan is wonderfully funny as she turns down various offers of marriage, and equally charming as she helps Abu Raed in the dramatic finish. The difference between West Ammani culture and everyone else is prominently displayed.

As we get to know Abu Raed through the always-beautiful Nour (Rana Sultan), we watch as the lives of a very divided society play out in different ways. In one scene, Murad (Hussein Al-Sous) puts it bluntly by saying, “He’s not a pilot. People like us don’t become pilots.”

Rana Sultan

Generally solid and enjoyable, however, I have two qualms.

First, in my opinion, the film attempts to balance between an Arab audience and a Western audience while not fitting either perfectly. It is as if one audience couldn’t be decided on so both were picked.

A lack of Arab cultural knowledge will be a significant test for audiences around the world. Several scenes used aspects of Jordanian humor, that fell awkwardly flat with the mostly American or Western audience. It seemed that the humor was either lost in the translation or wasn’t picked up on by the crowd.

For example, in one scene, Captain Abu Raed heads home after telling the children stories. As he walks away, one of the kids jumps up and starts dancing and clapping. A well-choreographed scene that is truly funny to Arabs, who know what happens when people get in groups to clap and dance, hardly induced a chuckle from the crowd. Meant as a funny scene, it plays out for a full 5 seconds, but instead of laughter, an awkward silence followed.

Second, the music, while written specifically for the film, was too emotional and overly dramatic. At times, it nearly ruined the beautiful images being show on the screen. Especially towards the end of the film, dramatic action on screen with the overly sentimental music was distracting rather than captivating. The score is an attempt to draw a Western audience into the film, but did the opposite.

Despite these drawbacks, and riding on an incredible wave of media attention and local support, the future for Captain Abu Raed and everyone involved in the making of, is bright.

After the film finished and the crowd burst into applause, and Amin et al. marched up to the front of theater for a Q&A session. Despite being hailed as the first feature film from Jordan, more accurately, Captain Abu Raed should be known as the first feature film to make it out of Jordan. For more on this movie, Struggle of Jerash, go here.

This film helps blaze a trail for other Jordanian films. From his efforts here, it is clear that Matalqa is a talented director and he has a talent for story telling. There is no question about the quality of the film. The only question that remains and possibly most important question is: Will it be profitable? And only time has an answer for that question.

The Pilot Hat

Screenshots courtesy Sundance FF

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