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Al-Ahram Weekly 8 - 14 April 1999 Issue No. 424 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 8 - 14 April 1999 Issue No. 424
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Focus Profile Features Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters All manner of beachwear
By Khairiya El-Bishlawi
Fatah min Isra'il (A Girl from Israel) assumes a straightforward position on the issue of normalising relations with Israel. The protagonists of the film -- a history teacher called Abdel-Ghani (played by Mahmoud Yassin) and his wife Ratiba (played by Raghda) -- embody this position: they suffer from the grief of having lost a son who was first held captive and then killed by the Israelis.
These two characters, witnesses to both the wars and the losses that have characterised the Arab-Israeli conflict, doubt both the good will and intentions of Israel: there is, their histories tell them, no possibility for peace without a U-turn in the political convictions of the state of Israel. It is a position deliberately contrasted with that of the younger generation, represented by the characters Hassan, Dalia and Amina, who view normalisation as a trap leading into disturbing grey areas, by Wael, who distinguishes between politics and fleeting social relationships, and finally by Tarek, who views the process of normalisation as a chance to make easy money, and who eventually becomes enmeshed in a sleazy world of sex and drugs.
Ihab Radi -- Fatah min Isra'il is his directorial debut -- counts among his family the producer-director Mohamed Radi, director Mounir Radi, cinematographer Maher Radi, theatre actor, producer and director El-Sayed Radi, and the singer Afaf Radi. Given the familial antecedents one might expect a film that is both candid and politically aware. Yet, however much one might wish to applaud a young director's first film, a more subtle analysis of the sensitive issues at hand would have given more reason to rejoice.
Unfortunately Ihab Radi appears to have been determined to mix two far from compatible cinematic genres, the scenic/touristic and the political. The former relies on a simplified emphasis on the visual -- the majority of locations involve selected landscapes, hotel and night-club interiors -- while the latter demands a cinematic rendering of the political issues in question.
Shot largely in southern Sinai, the film contrives an undoubted visual appeal. As a group of youngsters undertake a journey to Taba a teacher and his wife, accompanying their son Tarek (played by Khaled El-Nabawi), find themselves in the same place where their eldest son was killed. During the trip Tarek falls in love with a girl called Lisa (played by Dalia Hussein) after saving her from drowning, unaware of the fact that she is Israeli since both she and her father conspire to mislead him into thinking they are American.
Fatah min Isra'il (whose original title, The Shadow of a Martyr is a little more resonant) was written by three established scriptwriters -- Rafiq El-Sabban, Mustafa Moharram and Farouk Abdel-Khaleq -- in collaboration with the director. There is, though, little evidence of agreement between the writers, resulting in the absence of even the most basic thematic unity. Each writer, it appears, was content to tread his own path, concentrating on different, and far from cohesive aspects of the film.
Between politics and tourism falls the story of the girl from Israel -- a plot line that allows for the exposure of plenty of flesh on the beach, as well as a soap-operatic tale of love and jealousy among young holidaymakers. And all of this is conducted in the shadow of the martyr, held captive and forced to dig his own grave before being shot in the head, represented on screen by his parents.
If the political structure of the film is inevitably shaky, it is not helped by a script lacking any spontaneity: the actors' listing of the reasons behind their opposition to normalisation range from the didactic and contrived to the farcical.
Credit, though, must be given to Raghda, whose performance as Ratiba, a middle aged-aged, middle class mother who continues to mourn her eldest son, was perfectly conceived. And so, too, the finely measured performance of Mahmoud Yassin.
The character of Aaron (played by Farouk El-Fishawi), a professor at the University of Tel Aviv, stands in shameful contrast to the realistic representation of the two parents. Conceived as a personification of evil, he sets about the seduction of Tarek, using his daughter and promises of money to convince the hapless young man that travelling to Eilat with Lisa is a necessary first step to any journey to the US.
Convinced by Aaron's ludicrous argument, unaware of the true identity of both father and daughter, Tarek falls in with the plan while his parents devise impossible schemes to prevent their son's journey. Yet there is no need for them to put them in action: his friends' advice, his mother's threats, his father's pleas and a growing awareness convince Tarek that he must return to Sinai and put an end to the adventure.
The story is punctuated by a number of set pieces: a silly fist fight between Aaron, Israeli university professor, and Abdel-Ghani, Egyptian history teacher, and the ramblings of Mahgoub (played by Mohamed Metwalli), a pragmatic capitalist who believes that money knows no nation and that loyalties are dictated solely by personal interest -- Mahgoub being the most cartoon-like.
Perhaps the film's most substantial achievement is its inclusion of a group of young actors whose talents the four scriptwriters failed to exploit. Tante Ihsan (played by Amal Ibrahim), Menahem (played by Tarek El-Hendi) and Mahgoub were more or less dispensable, while Hanan Tork, who plays Amina, does not seem to have acquired any significant acting skills since her performance in Youssef Chahine's Al-Muhager.
Ihab Radi's first film attempts too much too loudly. Yet Fatah min Issrail is unlikely to pass unnoticed, if only because of its highly inflammable subject. Radi's debut, indeed, appears in many ways to be an extension of his father's (director Mohamed Radi) early 1970s film Abna Al-Samt (Sons of Silence), in which soldiers wait in trenches for a war with Israel. But in Radi junior's Fatah min Isra'il , the enemies no longer wear uniforms. Instead, they come in many shapes and sizes, and all manner of beachwear.
