 |
Al-Ahram Weekly 12 - 18 August 1999 Issue No. 442 
|
||
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
| ||
|
Al-Ahram Weekly 12 - 18 August 1999 Issue No. 442
|
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
| ||
Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Books Features Travel Living Sports Time Out Chronicles People Cartoons Letters Tried and tested
Khairiya El-BishlawiIt is hardly the done thing for critics living in these benighted days for Egyptian cinema to limit their jobs to an evaluation of those few movies that achieve high box-office revenues and general audience approval. A more difficult task faces the critic, for he or she must undertake to understand the public -- a process that involves coming to terms with the tastes of the audience. It is, after all, the public that ultimately pays for films -- it is for a hopefully large public that the majority of films are made. The bevy of critics flocking to the opening night do not, automatically, occupy a preeminent position in the minds of producers and directors. Let's face it -- critics seldom pay for their own seats. It is perfectly possible that the public that makes or breaks a film at the box-office does not even read the words of the film critics, and if they do they do not take the strictures to heart.
In order to properly discuss Abboud Ala Al-Hodoud (Abboud on the Border) we must first ask a very pertinent question: what are the elements that attract such wide audiences to the theatres showing the film? And the answer is relatively simple: the public goes to the cinema en masse with a simple aim -- they expect to be entertained.
The intellectual content of any film -- that is, the socio-political commentary it gives -- is of secondary importance. Just think of last year's great box-office success -- Sa'idi fil-Game'a Al-Amrikiya (An Upper Egyptian at the American University). At the core of the film lay a particular view of Egyptian society, and one based essentially on class difference. Yet the audience was almost unanimous in its appreciation of Mohamed Heneidi and appear to have taken him to their hearts as one of very few actors capable of tackling serious subjects while at the same time providing the kind of entertainment that is the audience's raison d'etre for going to the cinema in the first place.
In "Abboud on the Border" a group of friends from similar social backgrounds discover, after a period of moral dissolution, that there is more to life than fun. Gradually, they come to terms with the real, practical nature of the world they inhabit -- a transformation that occurs as they are undertaking their military service.
Despite the humorous intentions of the film, it is immediately obvious that the audience absorbed the serious message of the film at the same time that it laughed at the antics of the characters. Not only that, but it was the element of humour, and its visual manifestations, that allowed the message to reach the audience.
In presenting Abboud, scriptwriter Ahmed Abdalla was successful in tailoring a character to suit Alaa Walieddin, an actor capable of imbuing a childlike logic with a sense of humour. Walieddin is drafted to the army despite the many physical obstacles that arise from his being enormously overweight -- largely after his father, a veteran soldier played by Hassan Hosni, decides that military life is the only cure for his son's unhealthy lifestyle. Abboud's father, an ardent believer in military virtues, writes a book about the meaning of patriotism and deeply wishes for his son to become what he believes himself to be -- a straightforward and responsible individual.
Once in the army, Abboud mistakenly joins an elite corps. Despite his overwhelming physical problems he is trained to the highest. Naturally, the film mercilessly milks the comic potential of this unlikely event. Because this film, like most Egyptian comedies, relies on tailored characters, the humour finds its source in Abboud's physical appearance and his difficulties during situations requiring a more flexible body. Beginning with Ali El-Kassar through Ismail Yassin, and ending with Adel Imam, similar prototypes have been used to extract laughter from audiences for decades.
Alaa Walieddin and company on the border
When Ismailia Rayeh Gaye (Ismailia Back and Forth) was released, the critics were perplexed by its success, having failed to see to what extent it had been constructed around an accurate reading of the
audience's sensitivity, taste and psychological make.
In the context of later, successful comedies, it is important to keep the precedent of Ismailia Rayeh Gaye in mind -- it was this film that provided the formula subsequent comedies would use to appeal to a mass audience.
The supporting actors in "Abboud on the Border" play roles with which many young Egyptians can identify: two of the three soldiers Abboud befriends in the army (played by Karim Abdel-Aziz and Ahmed Helmi) come from popular districts while the fourth (played by Mahmoud Abdel-Ghani) is from Upper Egypt. All have experienced unemployment and poverty, and they have all sought to escape via the well-worn route of drugs and sex, if not quite rock and roll. And then they are drafted in the army, trained, and sent to the Egyptian frontier in South Sinai where they are expected to spend the rest of the service.
There they accidentally find a whole field of cannabis owned by a rich foreigner (played by Ezzat Abu Ouf) who also plies them with food, drink and pretty girls. Barring the first few sequences of the film, director Sherif Arafa's distinctive technical style takes over -- camera movements, the mise-en-scene, scenic structure, the direction of the actors, all bear his distinctive handling. Arafa's unique editing style is successfully employed in Abboud to offer quick, reverse shots highlighting the element of comparison on which the film's humour is based.
And among the other factors that help make Abboud a pleasant film is the use of the musical score (composed by Nabil Ali Maher) and the director's use of both the beautiful landscape of South Sinai and the carefully chosen interiors.
