Martyr (2017, Mazen Khaled)

This film was premiered the day before yesterday at the Film Festival in Venice, but thanks to the generosity of the festival, I am able to screen it in my living room. It was wonderful to be close to a major event and to see a film that hasn't even got a listing on IMDb. It's like sitting in the first row.
However, there is also a disadvantage, as very little information is available on this movie, so I am somewhat hermeneutically confused.
Martyr is about Hassane, a young man in Beirut. He should shoulder some responsibility, say his parents, but he prefers to hang out at the beach with his buddies.
On the page of the Biennale I found this comment by the director:

The sea is their liberty, their escape. The corniche is where they brush up against society, but it is also where they turn their naked backs to it, and jump into the vastness of the horizon.

Hassane mentions that he has seen Mahdi ans his companions. He compares their lives with his and says that they have glory, while he has only his parents' living room. I think, he is referring to militias and the prospect of becoming a "blood martyr". Hassane also wants to jump into the vastness of the ocean, but drowns.
His friends carry him home. The scenery looks very much like those we often see on TV when victims of attacks are carried through the streets. At home Hassane is declared a martyr. (I have checked it: yes, drowned people have the status of martyrs.
So - what is the message? I think, it is about making the best of one's life. Martyrdom is escape; being passive is also not changing anything. So - without claiming that I have understood the film - I think it is a message about making the best of life.
This film has extremely beautiful pictures. It starts with a dream of Hassane floating in the pocean (about five minutes). It also gives itself time. You could say that this is fitting, as their life is very slow. Sometimes I have, however, the suspicion the film is so slow, because the director hasn't enough to say to fill up the time.
Men and women are mourning in different rooms. There is a song (to me it sounds like a prayer) and a scene that looks like a scene from a modern ballet. The women's mourning features also a song. (I have not the knowledge to identify these pieces, but I really wished, I had someone with whom I could discuss these issues. Another cultural subtext  I miss is the meaning of the sea for Arabs. As in Personal Affairs, where someone misses an audition, because the sea is so fascinating for him. I want to know, but wheer to get such knowledge.)
Martyr is an exquisite æsthetic experience. The visual aspect is very delicate and beautiful, but access to the content demands perhaps specific cultural knowledge.
7/10

تالة مون أمور ([Thala mon amour] 2016, Mehdi Hmili)

2011, Tunisia. The Arab Spring has started. People are demanding their rights, among them Houria, a seamstress working in a factory. Mohamed, her former boyfriend, manages to escape from prison. He tries to find her in the turmoil. His plan is to move to Algeria. But Houria wants to change Tunisia.
Thala mon amour is thus a tale about getting involved or keeping private. The question is mirrored by an elderly couple, a midget and his quarrelsome wife.
As someone who does not know Arab culture intimately, there are some difficulties, especially when the midget speaks. It is not easy to decide, if he mode of speaking is realistic or just bad acting. (I wish, I had someone with whom I could discuss such questions.)
The camera work is a very shaky hand-held camera. Many fast camera movements, especially in indoor scenes are simply too enervating.
This film gives an idea about the Arab Spring from within. This is the most interestin about it.
5/10

علي معزة وإبراهيم ([Ali, the Goat and Ibrahim] 2016, Sherif El Bendary)

For a simple film watcher it is not so easy to get access to quality films from Arabic speaking countries. If there is a chance to see one, it is equally frustrating to get access to more information about instructor or the respective film. Ali, the Goat and Ibrahim was - as it seems - screened at different film festivals, which is a pity. This is a very fine film, almost a fantasy comedy.
The film starts with Ali bringing a gift to his fiancée Nada, a large pink teddy bear. They are stopped by the police who assumes that they drugs and the stab the cute teddy bear. At home Ali calls fro Nada. Ali's mother is watching a soap on TV and makes snappy remarks about Nada. We understand her when we learn that Nada actually is a - goat. The other outsider is Ibrahim, a musician who hears awful shrieking noises, that take awa the lust for life from him. - Both get advice to throw three stones into the "three bodies of water" in Egypt.
Ali and Ibrahim start on a journey that will change their life forever. They are for better and worse dependent on each other and end up to become friends.
In this film reality and imagination are intertwined. The fantastic and the realistic are thus not on separate levels, but the fantastic is a necessary part of the ordinary life.At times we might even doubt if something is strange but real or unreal but still integrated in reality.
This is an amusing film that is solidary with its characters. As beginner to films from Arabic speaking countries I was very surprised to see such a nice film with likeable characters and warm humour.
8/10

عيون الحرامية ([Eyes of a Thief], 2014, Najwa Najjar)

This film has probably good intentions and while I am prepared to give it some good-will credits, I cannot help to notice that the execution is not really satisfying.
Is this about the daily life in Palestine? What do we see? A lot of men sitting in a bar and complaining uselessly about the occupants. Do we see street life? Yes, sometimes, but the visuals do not really correspond with the soundtrack. And we do not see women in the street and hardly anyone with religious garments. I do not know, if street life in Nablus is like that, but I have the strong suspicion that this is a filtered view. I wish I had some body with whom I could discuss such issues.
Tarek, a premium sniper, is released from prison for an assault that happened 10 years ago, His wife has died and his daughter has disappeared. Tarek tries to trace the daughter. He can make use of his skills as engineer and also discovers that a local collaborator has cheated the local population for the water they are paying for. What is the message here? Local Quislings work together with the occupation authorities.  Thus they can maintain the hatred against them and do business for their own good. Is that so? -
Tarek is portrayed as a positive character, somebody who actively wants to achieve changes (by killing border controls). At least he achieves that the water supply is no longer redirected to the Israeli settlement. The message? Civil action is better than killing?
Another thing that surprised me is the absence of religion. Yes, I know, I know, the evil media make us believe that religion is the source of all evil. But - on the other hand: Tarek is a Christian in a Muslim majority society. The theme of religion is hinted at, but it is not developed. (Well, I don't think that religion has to enter a plot, only because this film is set in Palestine, but then - the writer chose to make the main character a member of a religious minority and does not develop that theme.)
So - interesting watch, but also unsatisfying.
5/10

Kal Naga as Tarek

Add caption

محبس [Solitaire] (2016, Sophie Boutros)

There are at least two phrases that should be excluded from the phrasebook of any serious film-lover.
The first one is "adds nothing new to" - which you can easily use when you liked the plot, but feel yourself too high-brow to admit it. And the second one "nothing special" which comes handy in those cases when you are too lazy to make an analysis.
Yes, we have seen this kind of plot before, but it seems there is the need to tell it one more time for some tensions between Lebanon and Syria. At least that will add something new, as the writers need to transpose the plot to local circumstances. Local viewers might recognize their own history, but when a non-initiated viewer (as I am) gets interested, it is an indication that something interesting is happening. "Mahbas" invited me to a house in Lebanon - and that is fascinating in its own right.
The main character is Therese, a woman in her 50s. Her brother was killed by a Syrian bomb ages ago. Since then she hates anything from Syria. The dead brother is present everywhere in the house and talks all the time to Therese. Her husband is the mayor of the community. It is perhaps not very surprising that he plans a weekend-trip to Istanbul with his secretary. The daughter of the house, Ghada, is studying in Dubai. There she has met her fiancé, Riad, a man from Syria. Riad's parents are not too happy about this liaison either, but they agree to visit. However, nobody had the nerve to tell Therese about the nationality of her future son-in-law.
Of course this leads to several awkward situations. Some might fnd that there is overacting, but it is rather something different. is going on. Here are ordinary people performing a show of 'no problem, everything is OK' for themselves and their guests/hosts. Of course this needs to be false and pretentious.
Therese tries different tricks to avoid the marriage, but at least she has to understand that it is useless to fight a battle, she cannot win. This is a comedy after all, so this is not really astonishing. However, it is comedy that does not blend out the real world ("we have many different refugees here"). There is also a short moment when we are reminded of the brutal reality in Syria when Riad's mother takes fireworks for an attack. I wonder, if this is cooresponding to the amount the ordinary people in Lebanon will perceive such events. For us atrocities are the only thing we perceive from that part of the world.
Love wins at last, but even Ghada and Riad had their doubts, if their love is strong enough to overcome the mutual hatred and distrust of the parent-generation. So - let this be the message of this film.
8/10