Only Men Go to the Grave - Al-Rijal Faqat End Al-Dafn Directed by Abdulla Al Kaabi
Only Men Go to the Grave - Al-Rijal Faqat End Al-Dafn
Director: Abdulla Al Kaabi
Starring: Saleema Yaqoub, Hebe Sabah, Abdelreza Nasari
Country: Iran, UAE
Year: 2016
Author Review: Roberto Matteucci
"It is not important to know everything."
The movie Only Men Go to the Grave of the director, from UAE, Abdulla Al Kaabi has its world premiere at the 13th Dubai International Film Festival.
The director in an interview:
"We have a saying, houses are full of secrets. A lot of people can relate to this partly Because most Arabs live double lives where they have a person in the House That is completely different from the person in Their social settings among friends or the outside world. They become experts at leading double lives. " (1)
This idea has the plot of the film, the story of a blind woman in a difficult environment, terrible especially for women:
"That I wanted to bring across. In the story, you have a woman who pretends to go blind to see who her children really are. I wanted to show That family love is different from the restrictions society places on us, Because It's human. I wanted to show the human condition of motherly love. " (1)
The location is in Iraq. Ghanima left her countryside for many years. Now in the countryside live the old blind mother and aunt Arfah. The aunt calls her, his mother is dying and before she would like to meet her daughters to tell them a secret.
Ghanima immediately joins her. When she is arriving the mother her falls from the terrace of the house. She is still alive but it is dark. In the same time, Jaber, the Ghanima’s husband, with his car hits the old woman.
An involuntary death, especially without revealing the mystery.
During the three days of mourning others secrets – happened in many years – were revealed. Ghanima sees again her sister for many years and she discovers she has a son almost teenager hidden in the house.
But there is much more, she will discover much more outrageous hidden facts.
Some parts of the movie are funny and ironic.
The scene of death of the mother, it is like a movie Coehn brothers.
Or the woman arrive for the funeral, but nobody know well the dead mother: "In this funeral nobody was sad."
The house is surrounded by a dark-colored, black, as if it was pervaded by something supernatural. The curtains of the windows are hidden many events.
The director tells something more.
He tells a totally feminine story. For the consequences of the Iraq / Iran war in the family there are only women, men are dead. The main characters are woman, except Jaber. But about Jaber will discover his sensually passion in dressing as a woman.
What happened among many women left without men?
What happened between the mother and the unknown lady friend arrived to greet the dead woman?
It is the difficult issue to deal with, he told with great caution by the young director but at the same time with a lot of courage: female homosexuality.
"It's not the story that's the issue, it's the way you tackle it. I tackled it, bearing in mind That I'm going to show it in our community, in this part of the world, "he says. "In the end it's a story. There's no nudity, there's no pornography, there's no violence. There's just is a lot of silence. And that's the power of cinema. You can open a dialogue without making anyone feel uncomfortable. " (2)
In fact, the director eliminates strong images.
The author directs the film with a lot of intelligence. We have a fragmented movie, but the images are reflective, static, like the theatrical scenes. The actors put themselves in positions.
The secret of the family was in blindness. The mother's life was offering her only suffering, misery, death, hatred, the war, and love hidden for other women. Therefore, had not so many solutions, the only option was - like Luigi Pirandello in Henry IV - see nothing, and hide everything in a big dark house.
