Film and the Middle East

8/13/2019 Film and the Middle East

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"The voice of intelligence ... is drowned outby the roar of fear. It is ignored by thevoice of desire. It is contradicted by thevoice of shame. It is biased by hate andextinguished by anger. Most of all it issilenced by ignorance." – Karl Mennin



SummarySince the time this class started, we have experienced the fear of nuclearwar on multiple occasions - a world war III with Syria and its allies, and nowwe are afraid that Iran is going to become a nuclear powerhouse. Theseare exciting, fearful times, but some people retain hope for the future of theMiddle East, and by association, the world. With such social and politicalrestraints that many Middle Easterners have, what could they do to solvetheir issues? The American lifestyle can be stressful, and full of work, butthose who live in the Middle East face much harder struggles to do withgeography, politics, religious identity, ideology, and culture. These issueshave a noticeably larger effect on their everyday lives than what weordinarily experience.



Summary Pt. 2As a generally strong, and powerful nation always on the eve of newtechnologies and ways to interact with the outside world, it should be ourduty to examine and attempt to help other nations and countries in themost efficient and safe ways. Yet, even with WWIII looming over our headswe find ways to distract ourselves from caring, always on our phones orsocial media or entrenched in work. In order to spread knowledge of theirdilemmas and feelings, artists and filmmakers in the Middle East havecashed in on these mediums creating films with surprisingly varied features -they are sometimes gripping, sometimes comically satirical, surreal,traditional, while others hyper-realistic, but educational nevertheless. Bydoing this, they aim to create a better sense of understanding in the world,and it may be in fact the best thing people can do for each otherunderstanding to weed out hatred and misconceptions. To make films,

and not war.



A Separation (2011 Film)Directed by Iranian Asghar Farhadi , “A Separation” is a triumph in the effort to incawareness and knowledge of the Middle Eastern world, and show the irony of certain

struggles to its own people.



What is it about?The film eventually revolves around two families – one of them with a father wappears to be non-religious. His wife seems to have dyed her hair, something that

might be considered taboo in that area. The wife is trying to escape Tehran, thecity that they live in, so that she can make a better life for their daughter. Thehusband s father is sick, so he refuses to leave. After an accident with thehusband„s father s caretaker, the other family is introduced – very religiopeople with a son, and not much money. It seems the caretaker, the wife in thereligious family, has hurt the old man by leaving him alone to take care of her ownpregnancy. At one point she has to disrobe and clean the old man which is strictly

against her religion.



Styles used to create drama

This movie almost feels like a documentary. The camera movementis not anything we would consider traditional in any sense of theword – it is very much “fly on the wall”. This makes you feel asthough you are in the film, and cannot escape – it s very gripping.

You can see that the film was shot with a higher quality camerathan what we might have thought was capable in Iran. The lighting

and production quality makes it feel like a true film that gave youyour time s worth.



Closing

If more filmmakers in the Middle East shared their views andexperiences (as Farhadi did) with the world through films or otherpopular mediums like social media and video games, it wouldcreate a spread of knowledge and understanding which is requiredfor healthy progress in the world.



End.

Film and the Middle East

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