Facing reality
I went to see "Yacobian Building" in the movie theater last friday with a few friends 
and it was the most uncomfortable 3 hours of my life! The movie tackles all the taboos of Egypt and shows a very bleak image of what Egypt has become. It was very disturbing yet not surprising...I mean its reality and its the reality of many countries. It showed me why we love the movies so much...we go to the cinema to escape our reality, to see a rosy reality that makes the world seem a much happier place, a place where true love exists, where the everyday stresses of life hardly matter, where poverty is something you dont see, where racism and sexism dont exist, and where people dont want to hurt others. Its a reality that, even though I know doesnt exist, I choose to believe in! I need to believe that people are good by nature, that we are capable of loving without restrictions, where all problems have a solution, where a black spot in life will later be replaced by a white one...just wait and everything will be better just coz they have to be! This movie shook that reality I chose to believe in...which is what made it heavy, sad, yet VERY good. If you walk out of that movie feeling like life is crap then the director did an excellent job. He is trying to rock your perceptions of what you believe life to be. He shows you how morals and values are meaningless to a person who is poor and has no money to feed himself. He shows you how your heritage means nothing unless you work hard to preserve it. He shows you how your reputation is something that can make you or break you. Its not that reality sucks, even though that is what I felt at the end, its that this is reality and you have to find the good in that reality without being naive. Life is not always rosy and facing that truth is what the movie is trying to do. The book of course has alot more details and probably makes all the many levels of the story more evident than the movie but even the people who read the book say the movie was excellent and did not distort the purpose of the book.
and it was the most uncomfortable 3 hours of my life! The movie tackles all the taboos of Egypt and shows a very bleak image of what Egypt has become. It was very disturbing yet not surprising...I mean its reality and its the reality of many countries. It showed me why we love the movies so much...we go to the cinema to escape our reality, to see a rosy reality that makes the world seem a much happier place, a place where true love exists, where the everyday stresses of life hardly matter, where poverty is something you dont see, where racism and sexism dont exist, and where people dont want to hurt others. Its a reality that, even though I know doesnt exist, I choose to believe in! I need to believe that people are good by nature, that we are capable of loving without restrictions, where all problems have a solution, where a black spot in life will later be replaced by a white one...just wait and everything will be better just coz they have to be! This movie shook that reality I chose to believe in...which is what made it heavy, sad, yet VERY good. If you walk out of that movie feeling like life is crap then the director did an excellent job. He is trying to rock your perceptions of what you believe life to be. He shows you how morals and values are meaningless to a person who is poor and has no money to feed himself. He shows you how your heritage means nothing unless you work hard to preserve it. He shows you how your reputation is something that can make you or break you. Its not that reality sucks, even though that is what I felt at the end, its that this is reality and you have to find the good in that reality without being naive. Life is not always rosy and facing that truth is what the movie is trying to do. The book of course has alot more details and probably makes all the many levels of the story more evident than the movie but even the people who read the book say the movie was excellent and did not distort the purpose of the book.
posted by Mai Daoud @ 12:33 PM
4 Comments:
At 6:30 AM ,
Kaitlin said...
Hello!
My husband was just talking to me about Yacoubian yesterday, then I happened to run across your posting. This intrigued me even further, that I am going to order the book!
Shokran, Kait
At 9:56 AM ,
Mai Daoud said...
That's great! Be prepared though because some parts are very heavy. It's a good eye opener and a good dose of reality which we need sometimes. Let me know what you think :)
At 3:00 AM ,
george said...
hi!
i liked the movie,aside from what is repelling"homosexuality,offensive words,...e.t.c"i believe that egypt instead of passing thru a magnifying lens after the revolution has passed thru a "reversing image"mirror :c)>
which is a bizzare way to say my mind like the movie :c)!!...offcourse it always has been there "corruption,social breakdown,devaluation,demoralization"but we ignored looking>< ..
joujou
At 3:26 PM ,
Kanaba said...
Very true analysis of the movie .. it is actually gave me a mixed feeling about it, i totally liked somethings about it and thought it was very good in bringing and touching on certain extremly good and important issues while it made me also that there was points that the drama nor the context needed to have in order to convey the message. for instance it didnt need to give details in order to say that that guy was a homosexual!! khalas details about that or about harrasment were not needed at all.. you may also like to read this review of the movie by NY.Times http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=346091
good day
Kanaba
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