Mixed messages
The Night Baghdad Fell didn't give Hani Mustafa nightmares. Well, not yet
Amateur? Professional? It's sometimes hard to tell. One rule of thumb, though, is the extent of idea- overload. With few exceptions amateur productions -- whether theatrical, or graduation projects from the Arts Academy and other such places -- tend to get buried beneath the ideas and concepts they are intended to support. But then the same can apply to professional work.
Lailat Soqout Baghdad (The Night Baghdad Fell) is written and directed by Mohamed Amin, and in both areas he has previous professional experience. The film starts with footage from news channel reports of the air raids in 2003 that marked the beginning of the Anglo- American invasion of Iraq. Shaker, a high school principal played by Hassan Hosni, is overtaken by panic as he watches the reports and is soon prey to a recurrent nightmare in which US troops enter Cairo and force their way into his house while he and his family can only stand by wearing orange suits that echo those worn by prisoners in Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib jail.
This potentially powerful sequence manages to descend into farce, thanks to exaggeration and an inability on the part of the headmaster to control his facial expressions. And then Shaker has a brain wave. He goes in search of a former student, Tarek (played by Ahmed Eid) who, we are informed via a flashback scene, once invented a weapon with which to confront a neighbourhood thug that when displayed in the classroom caused all the other pupils to faint. The headmaster resolves to invest all his savings in creating the atmosphere in which Tarek can create a weapon that will have a similar effect on the Americans who nightly invade Cairo in his dreams.
If the structure of the film constitutes an oversimplification of its major theme, it also fragments that theme in order to take on certain social issues. Shaker sits in a café telling his friends about his idea for an ultimate weapon and they regale him with rumours that they present as facts: such a weapon already exists, says one, and was successfully tested during the complete power cut Egypt experienced in the 1980s, when all the nation's electricity was diverted to enriching uranium. The smog that covers Cairo every October, insists another, is the result of radiation leaks from a nuclear reactor. They are therefore shocked when, speaking with their friend, a retired army general played by Youssef Dawoud, they are told in a distinctly military tone of voice that the only weapon is faith.
The headmaster finally finds Tarek smoking hash in a café. Once the former student is informed of Shaker's plans the film divides into two strands. First Tarek, after all his needs are provided for, reveals he cannot work without hashish, leading to Shaker's excursion to a drug dealer only to discover his best students leaving the premises having scored ahead of him. And then there is Tarek's impotence, discovered after he marries the headmaster's daughter Salma (Bassma). The headmaster takes him to a doctor (Nabil El-Hagrassi) who is also his friend, who deduces that Tarek is physically fine and that his condition is a result of stress. "Patriotic" people suffer from this condition, intones the doctor, because they are concerned for the country. In the café the friends later argue about which among them is most "patriotic", apart from one who concedes that when it comes to such matters he is more of a "spy".
But the director does not seem intent on dealing with the sexual issue in any logical way, and instead co- opts it into his political parable. Tarek is cured of his impotence when his wife discovers that he can be aroused if she dresses in the uniform of a US marine, following which their lovemaking takes on a sadistic twist. It is a secret she shares with her female friends, who all follow the same strategy and the wives seem strangely happy with their new role.
And in what amounts to a gratuitous underlining of the symbolism the director has Tarek place a picture of a marine behind the seat of the lavatory. He then removes it and puts it in front of him, a gesture loaded with sexual overtones. Later, when he fails to successfully demonstrate his weapon to the public -- and two CIA agents for good measure -- the photo is replaced in its original position.
One of the film's most serious flaws is its seeming determination to address serious issues -- events in Abu Ghraib, US threats against Syria, generally introduced when one of the characters says, "have you read the papers today?" -- only to trivialise any discussion. Indeed, the worst scene in the film by far is a demonstration in front of the American embassy at which Salma delivers a speech straight to the camera.
The film could have been an entertaining farce were it not for its ponderous politicking. Yet the audience inevitably seeks some logic behind the political messaging, only to come away disappointed, to which extent the film replicates the anti-Soviet propaganda of Cold War movies.
The director seems to have intended to create a film that stands midway between the new wave of comedies and more serious cinematic work. He should have erred in favour of the former: as a puerile comedy expressing the views of an enthusiastic teenager with little political knowledge but enough enthusiasm to formulate an opinion it might have worked better.
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online : Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/783/cu2.htm