Mahmoud Hémeida Movies

Egyptian director Atef Hetata debuts with this nuanced, socially-minded drama. Set during the Gulf War, the film focuses on disturbed high schooler Mohamad (Ahmed Azmi) who early on in the film is suspended from school for spying on girls through a hole in the wall. His divorced mother, (Sawsan Badr) who works as a maid, is forced to make sacrifices in order to pay for Mohamad's make-up lessons. As the film progresses, Mohamad's teacher agrees to instruct him for free because he is attracted to his mother. Mohamad's incestuous longings for his mother drive him into a jealous rage. The lad finds his way out of his sexual confusion by wholeheartedly embracing fundamentalism. He falls under the spell of a fanatical Islamic extremist group who encourages him to believe that he has the right to force his mother to wear a veil and to marry a polygamous sheik. This film was screened at the 1999 Thessaloniki Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

Ideas are imperishable, such is the premise of this powerful, upbeat allegory from one of Egypt's most esteemed directors, Youssef Chahine. Ostensibly the true tale of revolutionary Muslim philosopher Averroes who lived in 12th-century Spain when Arabs ruled Anadulsia, it parallels the story of Chahine's own experiences with Islamic fundamentalists when he released his 1994 film L'Emigre because it dared depict a sacred Muslim prophet. During that time, fundamentalists were not content to merely have the film banned, they also threatened Chahine's life. Despite their destructive efforts, the fundamentalists ultimately failed and L'Emigre became one of Egypt's most successful films. Averroes was a follower of Aristotelian thought, an innovative lawyer and an important scientist (he discovered the purpose of the retina) who lived during the rule of the great liberal Caliph Al Mansour. At the time, the Caliph's rivals were part of Magdi Idris, a fundamentalist sect, who sought to destroy his power by cloaking their own political agendas in religious dogma and spreading it liberally amongst the easily influenced peasantry. Averroes' ordeal began when fundamentalists found his many books espousing a humanistic doctrine contrary to their own. Demanding an end to the spread of the philosophers radical, rationalist ideas, they insisted that the Caliph launch a fatwa against Averroes. To this end, all of his books were publicly burned and Averroes himself was exiled. But before the burning occurred, Averroes' faithful students copied each of his detailed Commentaries on Aristotle and smuggled them to Egypt where in time they were passed down to become the cornerstones of modern Western philosophy. While the narrative itself is relatively straightforward with few epic embellishments, the film contains a few decidedly Arabic twists, such as the inclusion of several Egyptian song and dance numbers that Western audiences may find jarring. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi