THE TAQWACORES: a knife slicing the heart of American Muslim youth

Any views I may have had of American, or indeed British, Muslims, especially Muslim youth, were totally smashed into a smudge that slithered down the nearest drain, surrounded by graffiti decorated walls, after having seen The Taqwacores. My poor brain literally short-circuited as it was getting image after image far away from the stereotyped conception of them as being no more than a bunch of Western haters planning terrorist attacks all day long, as they are mostly accused of being by the Western media.

The Taqwacores portrays a group of teens looking for a gap to inhabit between the Qu'ran and popular culture (alcohol may be forbidden in the Qu'ran, but not weed, as a Muslim punk retorts when Umar, a pious man, harangues him), of teens who pray during the day and play punk rock and party hard in the night, of teens who defend that space they have created.

The film opens with Yusef (Bobby Naderi), a young man, an engineering student, staring at a house across the road, an unusual looking building, to say the least. Umar (Nav Mann), the leader of the house, lets him in. We go in with him, the walls are dabbed with Islamic and underground graffiti, and we soon meet his new house mates.

The film is cleverly divided into seasons, a device that allow its director, Ayad Zahra, to reveal this bunch of people in all their flowing diversity along nearly a year to our eyes, as the conversations between Yusef, the evolution of his beliefs constituting the leif motiv that pushes the narrative forward, and the other inhabitants of the house expose, conversations with Umar, a rather more conservative young man, who, nevertheless, evolves as autumn follows summer, and also with a young woman permanently wearing a burka, yet spending her free time in expurgating the Qu'ran of references demeaning women and their sexuality, a feminist burka wearing girl who does not mind to fall on her knees for a blow job.

Most importantly, his new house mates introduce him to the Taqwacores, a hardcore Muslim punk rock scene that is only known in the West, in the United States. As enlightening was also the exchange between Yusef and Lynn (Anne Leighton), a young American Catholic educated white woman flapping around the house, who prays to God, whatever the name of that God is, a conversation that shows how Yusef's beliefs, the ideology of his religion, wrecks the humanity of a beautiful yet sexual relationship she tries to initiate with him.

The house itself is another character in The Taqwacores, a house that looked like a squat, a mosque during the day, a den for outrageous parties at night, parties including a gay Muslim, the already mentioned sex obsessed burka wearing feminist girl, much to the disgust of their strict Muslim visitors, a visit ending in tragedy.

The Taqwacores documents a visceral clash between the desire to live, to sing, to rock, to be wild, with the stern face of a closed ideology, an interpretation of the Qu'ran intents in shackling the flow of life. Pious recitations versus loud punk songs coming out of the guts. A clash which lays wide open, all the bloodied metaphorical entrails hanging out,the deep divisions within American Muslim youth.

The hand held camera work visually conveys the immediacy and fragility of the story, while hard punk rock delights the ears. However, this is not a flawless film. Paradoxically, the raw edges here and there from the visceral shooting is a strength.

Punk versus the Qu'ran.

The Taqwacores was filmed in Buffalo, New York, with a Red camera, with support from the Sundance Institute, on a low budget. As such, it is a true independent film.

Directed by Eyad Zahra

Based on the novel by Michael Muhammad Knight
Distributed by Network Releasing 

THE TAQWACORES (15) is set to open at UK cinemas on 12th August at Empire Leicester Square, Ritzy Brixton plus key cities.

http://cinema-architecture.blogspot.com/2011/05/taqwacores-set-for-uk-cinema-debut.html

“The Tree of Life”, narcissistic drivel or masterpiece?

Terrence Malick's long awaited The Tree of Life has finally arrived to my local cinema, and I was deeply disappointed.

I see it, simply and mostly, as propaganda for some spurious pseudo religious, spiritual and philosophical ideology, a long section of it being imagery that some would call beautiful, which I thought that were ultimately banal, images which have become cliched by overuse, the cinematic equivalent of coffee table books. Frankly, I nearly fell asleep during that long section. I am aware that there has been a debate in the United States about slow cinema. The Tree of Life is not slow cinema, is just plainly banal. It wears its colours from the very beginning, with the declaration that life goes either the way of nature, or the way of grace. Excuse me, but the world is much more complex than that.

Once I got through this pseudo-philosophical section, characterized by banal and meaningless images, I am aware that I am repeating myself here, a story of disappointment came through, a story that opposes Jack (Sean Penn) with his stern, at times brutal, father (Brad Pitt), growing up in suburbia land in Mid America in the 50s. However, very little has been added to the exploration of the conflicts harbouring behind the white clap boarded homes of the American Dream. A man, Jack, wandering through tower blocks and middle America searching for meaning in his life? Sofia Coppola did this much better in her Golden Lion awarded Somewhere.

Adding a voice over full of pseudo philosophical drivel and banal imagery does not make a film better, this is the lesson of The Tree of Life. It is the kind of work that gives arthouse cinema a bad name.

As an afterthought, I had to see that the performances by the children are superb, Malick was able to enter into a childhood world.

Malick's Badlands is still one of my favourite films of all times. I don't think I will see his next one, as I do not want to be disappointed by a master fallen from grace. The Tree of Life masterpiece is not.

Director: Terrence Malick

Cast: Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain

The long awaited latest from Terrence Malick, the acclaimed director of such classic films as Badlands, Days Of Heaven and The Thin Red Line, is finally here.

The Tree Of Life is the impressionistic story of a Midwestern family in the 1950’s. The film follows the life journey of the eldest son, Jack, through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he tries to reconcile a complicated relationship with his father (Brad Pitt). Jack (played as an adult by Sean Penn) finds himself a lost soul in the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith. Through Malick’s signature imagery, we see how both brute nature and spiritual grace shape not only our lives as individuals and families, but all life.

Distributor: 20th Century Fox

Venue: UK wide

Still and trailer © 20th Century Fox

The Violent Kind

Director: Mitchell Altieri & Phil Flores

Cast: Cory Knauf, Taylor Cole, Bret Roberts

Troubled Cody, a second-generation member of a violent and notorious Nor-Cal biker gang, rides out with his friends to a party deep within the redwood forest.

At the end of the wild evening, Cody’s ex-girlfriend Michelle is discovered wandering aimlessly, covered in blood, screaming and convulsing as if possessed by something unworldly.

Desperately trying to summon help, Cody’s plans are ruined by the arrival of another malicious gang, seemingly from the 1950’s, who show up “looking for a few kicks…the violent kind.””

However, this ominous Rockabilly gang are not there to pick a fight. They want what’s growing inside of Michelle – something evil and powerful – and they will stop at nothing to get it.

THE VIOLENT KIND mixes the savage artistry of horror, science-fiction and drama to tell a story that will leave you shocked, bemused and exhilarated well after the credits roll.

Theatrical release date: 22nd July 2011 DVD Release date: 25th July 2011

Running Time: 87 Minutes DVD RRP: £15.99 / Cert: 18

Distributor: Metrodome

Venue: Key Cities

Life in a Day, an ode to our humanity

24th July 2010

LIFE IN A DAY

A snapshot, an ode to all of us, to our diversity on this planet of ours, to our laughter, our cries, our everyday rituals, out poverty, our riches, our hopes, our pets, our activities, our desires, our loves, our fears, even our toilets, Life in a Day was shot in a day by hundred of ordinary people, many requested through YouTube, others having been given cameras to record their lives on that day.

An emotionally engaging film, Life in a Day is structured along themes and visual lines, with entwined narratives giving it a sense of order and continuity. It has not only the support of YouTube, but also of Ridley Scott.

“People responded by submitting more than 80,000 videos representing over 4,500 hours of deeply personal, powerful films. Contributions poured in from 197 countries from Australia to Zambia, Peru to Ukraine, UK to Japan, from the heart of bustling cities to the furthest and most remote reaches of the earth. Many of the entries were submitted via YouTube whilst a number came from cameras that were handed out by contacts in the developing world.'' LIFE IN A DAY brings together the most compelling footage, combining 331 clips into a 95-minute film”.

A contemporary version of those photographic books published in the 70s and 80s: Life in a day in the live of (insert name of a city). In its formal composition, the film also reminds me of Godfrey Reggio's Koyaanisqatsi and Powaqqatsi (music by Philip Glass), a kind of a visual, musical and, above all, human symphony.

The score, by Harry Gregson-Williams and Matthew Herbert is absolutely beautiful. My kudos goes to the editor, Joe Walker: to have put all these hundreds of clips into a coherent whole is no mean task.

I went into the cinema fearing I was going to be bored, I was not. I laughed, I cried but, most of the time, I sat there, completely mesmerized. I cannot really described it any more, it has to be seen.

Director: Kevin McDonald and... hundreds of others.

Distributed by Scott Free.

Falling autumn leaves...

Autumn leaves slowly falling on a deserted path; graves, trees silently contemplating a solitary figure, Anna Schmidt (Allida Valli), as she walks towards the camera, towards the man waiting on the side, Holly Martins (Joseph cotton) who nonchalantly lays back on a cart, after having been dropped by Major Calloway (Trevor Howard) from the funeral of Harry Lime (Orson Welles). Anna walks past the man, who does no longer exist. With her out of the frame, Holly Martin lights a cigarette.

Autumn leaves still falling, slowly, slowly...

One of the saddest scenes of cinema, that, the closing one from Carol Reed's “The Third Man” (1949), undoubtedly one of the masterpieces of all times.