As part of Cairo Film Festival, a conference was held on Friday at the Egyptian Opera House after screening the Syrian film Attahin Al Aswad (Black Flower) scripted and directed by Ghassan Shmait, the Egyptian local papers reported.
Speakers in the conference focused on the film’s deficiency with its “political and historical dominating” orientation. The film tells about a Druze village in south of Syria.
“The deficiency appeared in more than one scene particularly the rush to tackle the Syrian revolution and Palestinian war and the ambiguity surrounding the way of dealing with such topics as if it was an attempt to run away from the present and consolidate what is forgotten,” the Palestinian writer Neamah Khaled, residing in Syria, said.
“On the other side, there are folkloric scenes including the washing of sheep wool in addition to the scenes of young children with their Sheikh, the scenes about the ruler’s visit and other scenes,” added Khaled.
Others including the Syrian critic A’laa Kurkutli focussed on the slow rhythm of the drama line and the growth of characters in a film that avoids confrontation with reality to run to history in which non of the Arab and Syrian series and films left nothing untackled in our modern life.
The Egyptian critic Mageda Maurice said, “the film dealt with women as valueless and did not give any female character its right to prove itself despite the availability of more than one character who carries drama qualifications necessary for the film.”
These notes become very important in the course of the film when it portrays life in a Druze village in south Syria in late forties under the control of the Mukhtar (local leader) and his men.
The film depicts the Arab traditions in the countryside when the Mukhtar (local leader) appears as an old collaborator with the French army. The Mukhtar exploits his father and grandfather’s struggle in the Syrian grand revolution in the twenties to impose his domination over every resident of his village and on members of his family.
Shmait will also participate in the formal contest of the festival by the film Zahr Al Rumman (Pomegranate Flowers) costarring Asaad Fidda, Abdel Rahman Abul Qasem and Maha Al Saleh – Albawaba.com
