 45 Days Movie Poster Ahmad Ezz El Deen (El-Feshawi) is a rich kid, convicted of killing both his parents and is sent to a mental institute for 45 days to confirm the state of his mental health. I am not a fan of Arabic movies in general. I don’t like silly comedies (El Limby style) but sometimes watch out of sheer boredom when there is nothing useful to do. But everyonce in a while an Egyptian movie truly impresses me. This was one of those times. The story was strong and deep. The characters were real and portrayed superbly by the actors. The direction of the whole thing was the cherry on top of the cake.
As the story progresses the boy tells his story to his doctor (Hesham Selim) who is having problems of his own in his personal life. As he flashes back to times of abuse and turmoil, you can not but help feel sympathetic towards this alleged murderer, angry towards his abusive violent father and frustrated with the passive mother.
It is a complex story told very beautifuly and simply and the ending was a huge surprise. I was half expecting a cheesy cliche ending and was surprised when it wasn’t there.
I am not sure why the movie didn’t do so well in box office terms but I think it was bad timing or maybe just that the general Egyptian population does not enjoy movies like this. It is a shame because we really do need better movies. Movies are entertainment but are also part of our culture and heritage and are a reflection of societies. Apparently we are a Limby society and will be for some time to come.
 45 days, On the motor bike
Imagine a book that tells the tale of four girls’ lives, loves and losses. The setting is in the city Riyadh of Saudi Arabia. Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea, is like Sex and the City without the sex and in Riyadh instead of New York. Gamrah, Sadeem, Lamees and Michelle are the girls who we follow through a series of emails that were written by one of them which tells their stories.
At the beginning of the book you start reading the emails of one of the girls, you don’t know which one who has decided that she will tell their story, using a Yahoo group called “Seereh Wenfada7et”. Immediately you are drawn into their lives. Perhaps it is general curiosity of how other people live their lives especially young women. Maybe it is the setting, Saudi Arabia, which is very different than any other country.
Coming from a different world where freedom is a taken for granted, it was strange to think about how different my life would have been like if that freedom was taken away. What kind of person would I have been if I did not have the chance to experience all of the things that I have? Then again I was very lucky, my parents, even though they are religious people and that is where they have always drawn the line (Halal and Haram) where probably the most open minded parents around. They encouraged education, intellect and culture. They wanted us to learn, to read and to explore. Before them, my grandparents did the same for their children. So perhaps it is a mindset more than anything else.
The book is rich with culture and tradition. The author is very descriptive and makes you feel that you are a welcome yet slightly perverse voyeur into their lives.
I liked the story and would recommend it as light reading. Maybe because the author is still young I felt that it lacked a certain depth to it but I can’t exactly put my finger on it, or maybe it is just the fact that the book was originally written in Arabic and something is always lost in translation. What I didn’t like was the naivety of the girls, but that is not the author’s fault that is how growing up like how they did would do to them. They did sort of grow up on the pages and some of them matures.
Have you read this book? What did you think?
Last week I went to Cairo for a short weekend trip and stopped at On the Run, a little green book with a white bride caught my eye and I bought it. Titled “Ana 3ayza atgawez” meaning I want to get married, the book is the funny stories that Ghada has been through meeting different potential grooms. I had no idea that the book was originally a blog, my husband pointed that fact to me and then my mother. Obviously the book was all over the news and I was just the last to know. I went out and got the other two books in the series by Shourouk publishing “Orz Belanaban lesha5sein” and “Ama hazihi faraksati ana” and was definitely impressed.
I’ve always thought that the blogging medium is a superb outlet for young Egyptians especially girls because it was a place where they could write, be creative and let it all out.
I instantly fell in love with (3ayza atgawez). Ghada’s style is hilarious, the stories are just so Egyptian and everything about the book is fresh and refreshing.
Orz Bellaban, is more about little stories that Rehab writes. Some are sad, some are funny and some are on the verge of crazy, but all of them grouped together point out very clearly that Rehab is talented and definitely on her way to a literary future.
The shortest book and in my view the simplest is Ama Hazihi faraksati Ana. Simple it might be but, shallow it is not, the book has lots of depth and is very easy to relate to, or maybe I related to it on a very strong level. Ghada (a different one) is obviously a very down to earth girl who’s head lives in the real world but has a very romantic heart.
Apparently the blogging trend is here to stay so definitely kudos girls!
You can visit the original blogs:
Ma3a Nafsi >> Ama Hazihi faraksati ana
Orz Bellaban lesha5sein >> Hawadeet
Wanna Be a Bride >> Ana 3ayza atgawez
You can also part of the interview the girls did with Mona El-Shazly on El 3ashera Masa2an here:
El 3ashera interview
“‘Hub’ is love, ‘ishq’ is love that entwines two people together, ‘shaghaf’ is love that nests in the chambers of the heart, ‘hayam’ is love that wanders the earth, ‘teeh’ is love in which you loose yourself, ‘walah’ is love that carries sorrow with it, ‘sababah’ is love that exudes from your pores, ‘hawa’ is love that shares its name with ‘air’ and ‘falling’, ‘gharam’ is love that is willing to pay the price.”
An Excerpt from the book “The Map of love” by Ahdaf Soueif.
I just finished reading the book and was sad to see it come to an end. Although from the excerpt it might seem that it was a soppy love story but this is so far from the truth. It is an amazing saga of several generations with a historical backdrop of Egypt at the beginning and end of the century. The characters were so entertaining and their lives were like windows into that era. I had previously read “In the Eye of The Sun” by the same author which I also loved but did not grab me like this one. Perhaps the reason why I enjoyed the book so much was because it transported me to a time in Egypt when things were so much better yet so much worse, a time when people had political aspirations and the will and drive to fight for their rights, like universities, women’s education and independence. It might seem weird that I mention independence last but I truly believe that when a nation is educated its independence becomes and inevitability.
As for the above excerpt, it truly is amazing to look at Arabic from the point of view of a non-Arabic speaker. I had always wondered why we only have one word in Arabic which we use interchangeably for love and like but I realized now that we have so many more versions of “love” than I had previously though. Arabic is truly poetic and romantic yet at the same time it is timeless and strong.
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