مرة اخرى

غزة تحت النار ولا احد (في الغرب على الاقل) يهتم بذلك

A Separation

      ... By Asghar Farhadi.
     Beautiful movie I saw last week (getting the Oscar, some cinemas in France decided to run it again for one week in the theatres), on which I could talk for hours. When you think it's just a story of an actual separation between a husband and a wife, you realize it goes deeper, and the separation is between everything and everyone ( between social classes inside Iran, etc ), a separation that every character miss on bridging to be in touch again ... Leading to the end, where the ones to pay the highest price are the kids symbolizing the next generation. Beautiful movie in that is also shows that the language, the cultural references and behaviors are but a thin sheet envelopping the same life : what the characters are living in the movie could be seen anywhere in the world, and maybe first of all here, in the "west".

     For example, even the character of the poor and deeply religious woman, which we might think is not found that much elsewhere (and that would be a terrible mistake in itself) could be swapped by simply a deeply "secular-moral" character elsewhere, leading to the same acts that we see in the movie played through the specific iranian culture.

     I was then so happy it got the Oscar, especially during these awful times where geo-politics are going nuts (and don't get me started on that, I'm not over the fact that Irak is destroyed, I think I'll go properly mad if the same happens again), I thought maybe it was a good occasion to go humanist and deflate the current crazyness, but as I read this, obviously, human stupidity is always strongest, as History has always shown ...

ها ! (Ha !)

فالرجل يبدو ظاهريا نجم الساحة، لكن المرأة هي التي تمسك بخيوط اللعبة وتدير لصالح عائلتها محيطها الذكوري الذي يتألف من ابيها وزوجها واخيها ... 

يبدو الرجل على انه السلطة المطلقة التي لا يمكن ان تعصى اوامرها في البيت ،الا انه في الحقيقة لا يعرف شيئا ولا يدير شيئا؛ فزوجته هي التي تدير شئون المنزل ونفقاته، وهي التي تعتني بزوجها واطفالها وتعالج من يمرض منهم ... 

 !ابلغ دليل على ذلك هو ان اي رجل تتركه زوجته يعود الى امه 

(الغمامة الحمراء لبشير كرومي - دار بلومزيري/مؤسسة قطر للنشر) 

     Ce que je me tue à dire depuis des années. Maintenant je me contenterai de coller ce bouqin dans les mains des gens. Et trouverai l'équivalent français un de ces jours pour mettre ici (il a été écrit en français à la base - le voile rouge de Bachir Kerroumi) si je n'ai pas trop la flemme.
     Mise à jour, le voici donc, l'extrait original : "Sur ce sujet l'hypocrisie est de mise. C'est un tabou extraordinairement sophistiqué : l'apparence est pour l'homme, mais la femme tire les ficelles. C'est elle qui manipule pour le bien de sa famille son environnement masculin, le père, le mari, le frère ...
      L'homme se présente comme l'autorité incontestable dans la maison, or il ne sait rien, il ne gère rien, c'est sa femme qui maîtrise les dépenses, s'occupe des enfants et de son mari et soigne celui qui est malade ... La preuve en est qu'un homme quitté par sa femme retourne chez sa mère !"

       (Et à ceux qui me répliqueront "mais ça c'est une exception", je dirais plutôt l'inverse ... J'ai plus eu l'occasion de faire ce constat de pseudo-patriarcat qu'autre chose.)

Anyone interested in the state of the ( more of less subversive ) political blogosphere in the arab world, especially in the often forgotten arabic peninsula, should read this great article.

Intimacy

By Hanif Kureishi.

I had seen the movie My Beautiful Laundrette ages ago and though I can't remember it properly, I know I liked it at the time. So I saw the author wrote some books too, and so I set to read them ... 

  

    Intimacy is a quick read ( 3-4 hours ). Weird. Seems that it generated a lot of debates at the time it came out. I think I can see why : usually this sort of quasi-autobiographical novel is written by women, and having the point of view of a man ( and moreover in the "bad" role of the husband and father who leaves his family ) is rare.

     Interesting but I can’t say I liked it. I rather disliked it, or rather found it pointless somewhat. Interesting as a social observer : you discover minds and sides of a society you were never aware of, and the intimacy indeed of a life I never thought about for the reason that I can’t relate at all with the main character, nor with any other of the characters in the book. I wonder how people can live with that much of chaos of feelings inside ( and why most people marry in the first place when they clearly shoudn’t ? ). Interesting also because I discover the way some parts of our societies are towards sexual matters : so free and casual that it looks totaly depraved and boring and pointless ( it's a feat, to make the most exciting and mysterious subject of any society, sex, to a boring one ! Though the characters want to believe it's still exciting ). I understand then why the main character is running after an idea of love ( a diminished idea at that ) : it’s the last mystery left to him to find life interesting and worth of living.

     On the same sort of subject, I found The Buddha Of Suburbia by the same author more fun.

     There is not many brands in the arab world specialized in arabic calligraphy designs on T-Shirts and modern clothes, which is a shame given all the possibilities this calligraphy gives for designs ( not even speaking of the richness of middle eastern culture and politics that can be used ) and I just saw this post in a great jordanian blog about a Saudi brand, and I really love their work ...

You are what your deep, driving desire is.

As your desire is, so is your will.

As your will is, so is your deed.

As your deed is, so is your destiny.

( Brihadaranyaka Upanishad IV, 4.5 )

     ( More or less quoted like this in the last movie I saw, The Iron Lady, good movie, Meryl Streep deserved the oscar - I liked it though I like the lady herself not, but it's interesting for the willpower shown of this woman, set to do the impossible, though, in my opinion, on the wrong side ... )