Alakhar (the other ) by Youssef Shaheen , a great movie by a very great director Perhaps the most noticeable about the movie is that Shaheen , for the first time , doesnt beat about the bush in showing his ideas . From the very beginning , the viewers find no difficulty in knowing the other that Shaheen refers to .
The movie opens with a talk between the Egyptian Adam and his Algerian friend Boushadad and Dr. Edward Said in Colombia university . The two youngmen seem to be dissatisfied with the U .S policy towards the Arab world. Nothing new . All Arabs including Shaheen himself share Adam and Boushadad their view.Hence , the whole movie can be seen as Shaheens journey in search of a way out . This way out is clearly manifested in Dr. Edwards dream of a united world a peaceful co- existence of all nations , of all creeds.In truth , Edward said as an arab- american thinker represents the idea of the dialogue of nations that shaheen aspires to.Hence, an intelligent choice to be praised on the part of the veteran Shaheen.
Adam and boushadad decide to return to their own countries .In the cairo airport , adam falls in love at the first sight with Hanan ,the journalist who went there to make an interview with a police official . If adams attitude was strange , so stranger was Hanans rapid responce to this love.Despite the fact that she never saw him before , she seemed as a beloved waiting for her long - lost belover .All events that come later find their roots in this love.
The movie opens with a talk between the Egyptian Adam and his Algerian friend Boushadad and Dr. Edward Said in Colombia university . The two youngmen seem to be dissatisfied with the U .S policy towards the Arab world. Nothing new . All Arabs including Shaheen himself share Adam and Boushadad their view.Hence , the whole movie can be seen as Shaheens journey in search of a way out . This way out is clearly manifested in Dr. Edwards dream of a united world a peaceful co- existence of all nations , of all creeds.In truth , Edward said as an arab- american thinker represents the idea of the dialogue of nations that shaheen aspires to.Hence, an intelligent choice to be praised on the part of the veteran Shaheen.
Adam and boushadad decide to return to their own countries .In the cairo airport , adam falls in love at the first sight with Hanan ,the journalist who went there to make an interview with a police official . If adams attitude was strange , so stranger was Hanans rapid responce to this love.Despite the fact that she never saw him before , she seemed as a beloved waiting for her long - lost belover .All events that come later find their roots in this love.
the character that shaheen genieosly wrote and Nabila Ebied skillfully played ,together with her husband are determined to establish a center for religions , which cosists a mosque , a church and a jewish temple.Here , shaheens dream or shaheens way out , so to speak reaches an apex. for a while, he fogets about all conflicts and disputes and gives reins to his imagination to imagine a world dominated by peace and stability for all religions.However, as the events develop, this idea is reveaied to be just an illusion or aday dream . margaret and her husband had made adonation of 50 million dollars for nothing.
the undeniable fact is that the three shaheen , margaret and adam experience isolation in different ways and with different goals.shaheen - as shown earlier - tries to isolate himself from the world of conflicts by imagining another of unity. but he makes certain that his aspirations or imaginings are beyond reach . there fore , he inevitably and realistically deals with the idea of conflict that is going to be the major theme of the movie.margarets isolation , however , is manifested in her rejection of the arabsshe regards hanan as unsuitable for her son as a wife and tries to marry him to the american ambassadors daughter instead. as it is , margaret behaves by the virtue of the fact that she is intended to represent the worlds sole super power .she deals with the arabs around her arrogantly , and even her husband , as an inferior -being.in fact , margaret as a character brings to mind the racist america of the first half of the twentieth century .moreover , all her acts aim at americanizing adam and taking him away from the arab world.she goes over the top to claim that she once had asexual relationship with an american old friend who may be adams real father. adams mother ,the american margaret
adam , on his part, has to resisst americas policy as represented in his mothers condescension and arrogance . although he lived and was educated in america and experienced the american dream as his mother proclaims , he wants to liberate himself from the the burden of the american half in him . Being Egyptian is the truth that Adam is sure of,and his love for Hanan enhances this truth . Therefore, by going against his mothers wishes and marrying Hanan , he takes the first step to didassociate himself from his mothers world.then this disassociation reaches its zenith when adam determines to leave his mother and and goes to live with hannan in her fathers home.
Shut away from adam , margaret felt as if her world had caved in . Americanizing Adam and removing his arab identity , in her view, cant be succesfully carried out without destroying adam - hanan love.to realize this evil end, she made a bargain with Fathi , hanans brother , who heads an extremist group on the polices wanted list to kidnap hanan and take her away from adams way in return for providing him a visa to america.in truth ,this controversial issue of islamic extremism is the most realistic point in the whole movie.
the plain truth is that the movie was produced soon after the explosions of the american embassies in nairobi and darelsalam in 1998 , the attaks that binladens qaeda was primarily suspected to be behind. and with margaret - Fathi agreement , Shaheen takes us back to the days of the cold war (1979 ) when alqaeda was first formed with Americas backing to fight against the Soviet troops in Afganistan. After fathi succesfully carried out his part in the conspiracy , Margaret , leaving him into the lurch , informed the police about his hide out.this end , of cource , brings to mind how the U. S treated Binladen and his fellow extremists after the fall of the the evil country as the americans dubbed the former soviet union .
In his historical treatment of the phenomenon , shaheen laughs at the american accusations of attributing terror to muslims or Arabs .as Margret funded fathi and as America supported binladen , everybody knows how terror was first made under a licence from america. moreover , earlier in the movie, boushdad , adams algerian friend was killed at the hands of the extremists and fathi was disowned by his family due to his involvement with the terrorists.in this way , the arabs have suffered and rejected terrorism and cant be put on a par with such extremists.
when fathi was about to escape, putting hanan under control , the police officials came and broke into the place.then , a gunbattle broke out.informed about the dangers to which hanan was exposed , adam rushed to her rescue.there , unfortunately the two lovers were shot dead . the movie closes with margaret putting her hands in pockets , convinced that with her co operation with fathi , she was paying for adams ticket to death.
though confident that adam - hanan love , despite its tragic end , has acheived an apparent victory over margarets racism , we should put our note aside to find an acceptable interpretation of such an end shaheen had opted for.does he assure his negative attitude towards his idea of unity or the dialogue of civilization that he has already evaluated as an illusion , and with the idea of death , he makes it clear that he wants the impossible.or he might give an image of the future of the america - arabs relationship in which we find nothing but death and destruction . or he shows the logical destiny awaiting for whoever may involve in a conflict with america, the the board chairman of the universe,or he is so far- sighted that he takes adams death , and particularly adam as aforecast of a more awful catastrophe inside america ,as happened in the sep. 11 terrorist attaks. Only youssef Shaheen can explain why the idea of death is weighing so heavily upon his mind.
BY ALAA AWAD TURK
