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Al-Ahram Weekly 19 - 25 August 1999 Issue No. 443 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 19 - 25 August 1999 Issue No. 443
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Profile Travel Living Sports Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters 
More than tulips in Amsterdam
By Khairiya El-Bishlawi
Hammam fi Amsterdam (Hammam in Amsterdam) is Mohamed Heneidi's follow up to the wildly successful Saidi fil Gamea Al-Amrikiya (An Upper Egyptian at the American University). Nor is he the only one attempting to cash in on the success of his first film: there is a plethora of releases with titles like Abboud Ala Al-Hodoud
(Abboud on the Borders) and Ashiak Wad fi Roxy (The Coolest Guy in Roxy) -- films that centre on the odd character found in the least likely place.
In short, there is a glut of the comedy of errors -- films in which the protagonist, whether by virtue of his physical appearance or mannerisms, is expected to solicit a never ending peal of laughter from the audience.
Hammam in Amsterdam is a perfect example of the form: Heneidi, the son of a poor Egyptian family who all live -- sisters, brothers, husbands, wives and children -- in the same tiny flat, finds himself transported to a European capital. We see him arriving, a stranger, unable to speak the language, without money or even a passport -- both are stolen shortly after he arrives. We watch him dealing with all sorts of odd situations -- the kind of things that just, might, plausibly happen to a poor and simple Cairene.
More importantly we watch him ascend from the lowest social rung to celebrity. He opens the best restaurant in town, buys farms and livestock, and eventually marries the prettiest Arab woman in Amsterdam, and all without loosing an atom of his sense of identity, of those qualities that we rather flatteringly assume make for the good Egyptian.
And all it takes, this wild and worldly success, is, as Heneidi's character tells us, the price of a ticket. It is a glib formula, stage-managed by a producer (Mohamed El-Adl) and a scriptwriter (Medhat El-Adl) who know how to play the tunes guaranteed to appeal. They did it before in An Upper Egyptian at the American University and here they are again, with the same director, Said Hamed, and essentially the same hero -- the kind, generous, witty and patriotic native Egyptian.
At the beginning of the film we see Hammam angling, trying to catch a fish in the Nile but instead catching an old shoe. The one lesson he learns from this experience is the necessity of patience and it is that lesson which constitutes his main asset once he embarks on his trip to Amsterdam. The plot progresses predictably -- there is Hammam with the father of the girl he loves, Hammam with his friend, Hammam battling for a visa, Hammam with his fat neighbour, Hammam at Amsterdam airport, Hammam with the pigeons, Hammam in the red-light district, Hammam and Yuda the Zionist etc... A flimsy dramatic structure, then, which -- if you care to exercise discretion -- might well be in danger of collapsing like a house of cards.
Many of the sequences are crude -- lacking sensitivity and bordering on the obscene. Perhaps the only saving grace is Hammam's loyalty to his roots. He has a strong mother and a father who fought in the 1973 October War -- and it is his parents who provide him with the spiritual foundations of his later success.
The Arab-Israeli struggle rears its head in the form of a Zionist character who keeps trying to stop Hammam from achieving his goals. Having said that, it must also be mentioned that the way both the director and the scriptwriter treat such a matter is far from serious or dignified. Having rightly defined Zionism as the main enemy of Arab aspirations, and having successfully found a Dutch actor to personify the character of Yuda the Zionist, they fail in every other respect, including their depiction of an array of Arab migrant workers who are, to say the least, farcical.
This said, there are a few enjoyable details in this hotchpotch of a film. Heneidi, a comedian with great talent, is once again ably supported by Ahmed El-Saqqa, playing the character of Adriano, an evil migrant worker. Adriano is a Machiavellian character who will stop at nothing to reach his goals, thus representing a contrast with Heneidi. His encounter with those working in the underground world of Amsterdam, be they drug traffickers or money launderers, provides the viewer with a glimpse of the darker side of Amsterdam, a necessary counterpoint to the scenes in which people sing and dance in the streets and on the canals of this alarmingly photogenic city.
Despite such moments, however, one cannot help but feel that El-Adl Group, producer Mohamed El-Adl and scriptwriter Medhat El-Adl, are in need of recharging their creative batteries. A third film based on the same character/place formula and the same ideas and jokes will surely end disastrously for there is only so much mileage in the genre.
So much for Hammam in Amsterdam. One should not be overly disparaging however. If the formula is beginning to look a little jaded, it has served as a showcase not only for the talents of a new generation of leading actors -- Mohamed Heneidi, Alaa Walieddin, Ahmed Adam and Ashraf Abdel-Baqi -- but also for a talented supporting cast -- including Ahmed El-Saqqa and Ghada Amer. And success at the box-office is no mean consideration either: when films are seen to make money more money becomes available to make films. And this is no bad thing. The horse that has recently pulled the cinema industry may well be becoming exhausted -- it has, though, done a good job. Who is next for the harness?
