Wow, is that really Omar Sharif . . . he of Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago, movies from the old 60s heyday of cinema? It is, and he’s still got that twinkly charm in his eye.
Sharif’s appearance, whilst a cameo, is apt. He plays Moulay Hassan, deceased domineering patriarch, from an old world order – and his influence (in the form of a roguish ghost) looms large. Hassan dies, leaving behind wealth, a gorgeous villa, a squabbling family and a very messy set of circumstances. But add into the mix some neat moments of poignancy, some crassly-funny lines, some top acting, and you have a movie that does the job.
It all takes place in Tangiers, amid rustic colours, ocean views, and luxurious rooms with plush furniture. At times the cinematography is reminiscent of the old Merchant Ivory movies (remember them? A Room with a View, Howards End…). The direction also possesses that controlled, still, almost stagey, quality you find with Merchant Ivory. And this works well, since all the family and supporting cast do their darndest to control their emotions and, indeed, their own lives.
Sofia (Morjana Alaoui) is one of three sisters and returns from America where she works as a moderately successful actress (playing melodramatic terrorist roles). She arrives back in Morocco, with young son in tow, and at the airport is immediately quizzed about her re-entry. What, she remains Moroccan and yet owns a U.S. passport? This confusion over identity, personal and cultural, persists throughout the movie.
Sofia returns to her stalwart mother, Aicha (the impressive Hiam Abbass), bored-of-life-and-bored-of-husband-and-cosmetically-altered sister Miriam (Nadine Labaki) and prim-and-altogether-too-proper sister Kenza (Lubna Azabal). We also encounter the gutsy eager-to-please maid Yacout (Raouia), who we come to understand has something of a secret under her maid’s shawls, and the inimitable, forthright Nana (who enjoys a McDonald’s and celebrating with a high-five).
Under Muslim traditions, the family and menagerie of friends undertake three days of mourning for the dead (but not-quite-gone) Moulay Hassan. So what do we see? Well, we see that Muslim life is much like any life, full of opinions and clashes and reconciliations.
It has grief intermixed with humour, seemingly absurd humour removed as it is from a Westernised context: talk of boob jobs in a supermarket, for example, or hunky plastic surgeons at the wake. We get a big hoo-ha around a table where the movie seems to say: hey look, everyone’s different, with a different life, everyone tries to get on and cope, no-one’s to blame. So yes, we have the verbose cultural clashes of difference, which heighten the drama, and reference our own lives, but it’s the subtler touches which work best.
Take, for example, Sofia’s passport saga, or her usually hidden tattoo, or Aicha who casually tells Sofia that a colour doesn’t suit, or Sofia who says ‘Dad never accepted Jason’ (husband Sean Gullette), or dead daddy’s fabulous collection of Western cars (Mustangs and Mercedes), or when Sofia and Zakaria (Adel Bencherif), son of Yacout, sup pints of beer in a seedy bar with a backing singer who sings in Arabic Frank Sinatra’s My Way. We all do it our way, the movie clamours, and that’s when the troubles start.
There are some lovely little touches: the repeated image of the sun breaking through a cluster of branches, a lotus flower, the prostrate Moulay Hassan with a somewhat surprising post-life physical reaction – all suggesting that fertility and life still carries on. We learn gradually (and this is skilfully done by director Laïla Marrakchi) of a dreadful secret which might undo the whole family fabric – something which hints at Shakespearian tragedy, yet pulls back.
Rock the Casbah is part of Safar: The Festival of Popular Arab Cinema hosted by the ICA (19th-25th September 2014). The intention of the festival is to remove Western ideas of Arab cinema as a peripheral voice or ‘third’ cinema. Well, this movie has a voice, and it’s your very usual and noble human voice, common to us all. The movie balances grief with humour, old worlds with new, control with green bottles of Heineken. Well worth a watch. Check out the ICA website for more details: https://www.ica.org.uk/whats-on/seasons/safar-festival-popular-arab-cinema
Verdict ★★★★Â
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Rock The Casbah Review at the ICA
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