FILM REVIEW: 'CAPTAIN ABU RAED'

A Movie Which Shows Why Hollywood is Looking Beyond Itself

By: Josh Moorhead

April 11, 2010

Although it’s been making rounds for three years, the film Captain Abu Raed is just now getting the DVD treatment. A festival darling, winning the World Cinema Dramatic Audience Award at Sundance in 2008, Raed is of particular interest to filmmakers and movie buffs for a few reasons. First, Raed‘s plot concerns itself with the power of storytelling and what a great one can compel a person to do or believe; second, Raed stands as one of the best representations of the blossoming Jordanian film industry.

Hollywood is starting to become a more global enterprise, with studios green-lighting flicks of low cost and little interest in the States that play gangbusters beyond our borders. At the same time, filmmakers in India (see “Bollywood” — in fact, checkout Buzzine’s own Bollywood section), South Korea, China and Japan, and now the middle east are making films to break into the US even as the US breaks out.

Abu Raed is worth evaluating, even if it’s not the greatest (I didn’t feel it was), because it’s resonating in our shores. While it didn’t see wide release or even garner too much a foothold in the media, Raed represents the beginnings of what should be a stronger film culture for Jordan, a stronger artistic awareness and relationship between American audiences and Jordanian filmmakers, and the careers of at least a few of those involved in Raed.

The film itself is about an airport janitor named Abu Raed who lives a solitary and quiet life in the absence of his since passed wife. One day, he finds a captain’s hat in the trash and takes it home> When the neighborhood children see it, they want to hear of his adventures flying around the world. He resists at first but then seizes the opportunity to help the children see beyond the confines of their town and the limitations they’ve put on themselves as lower-class Jordanian village kids. The oldest and most skeptical, a boy named Murand who is abused along with his brother and mom by his father, eventually becomes the focus and the most in need of this kind of inspiration.

Abu Raed is a compelling character because of the impact he’s able to make out of his simple, delicate life and its seemingly narrow scope. It inspires the viewer to see how they can give to the world even if they feel the world has given little to them.

Don’t let me nay-say Raed by saying it “wasn’t the greatest.” I came in with particularly high expectations since two particularly critical friends of mine caught the movie at Sundance in ’08 and thoroughly loved it — it even brought them to tears. The movie didn’t move me that much, but perhaps it’s because I’m not usually as critical or even cynical. Those already believing in optimistic principles like Abu Raed might not be overwhelmed by Raed as reaffirmed.

Since the movie is thoroughly Jordanian, it lacks some of the Hollywood gloss and production value but is actually stirringly beautiful — more so than the CGI hi-jinks we feast our eyes on during the weekends at theaters nowadays. In fact, Raed gets a lot of likability from its abundant genuineness. It is the organic vegan meal to, say, Clash of the Titans‘ greasy fast burger. Not to say I didn’t enjoy Clash for what it was, and with summer fast approaching I’ll be happily gorging myself on blockbuster monstrosities, but Raed represents a simpler, maybe more hopeful thing, like the character himself.

One person Raed also impacts is the actual pilot Nour, a well-to-do young and beautiful woman venturing into her 30s who is resistant to the societal pressures of her parents’ tradition. Nour plays an important role in the film, and actress Rana Sultan is ravishing in playing her and could easily get some Hollywood gigs (if that is her gig). Directing these actors, even the kiddos, to their fine performances is Amin Matalqa, a Jordanian immigrant to the US at the age of 13 who grew up in Oho and attended Ohio State until 2003 before getting an MFA at the American Film Institute. I’ve actually been interested in getting to watch Raed for some time — not just because it’s gotten abundant critical acclaim, not just because my friends fell so hard for it, but because those friends and myself all went to Ohio State, and Matalqa even paid a visit to our film club, though I was already gone.

Read previous paragraphs to see my journalistic integrity is still intact (well, unless you question my enjoying Clash of the Titans), but even as I’ve taken notice of Raed and Matalqa, we all should. Not because of Ohio (though that’s pretty great), but because of Ohio, Jordan and Matalqa himself. Because of Raed. It’s the kind of film by the kind of filmmaker that represents a break from the norm and perhaps another kind of voice in the future. I would love to see a well-produced, sufficiently distributed Iranian film that managed to reflect the current political upheaval there, for example. Captain Abu Raed is absolutely Jordanian but also resonant. Hollywood is America’s chief exporter of culture and is now open for importing more than ever. Matalqa and his Abu Raed are ready for the job. Speaking of which, Captain is now available on our shores on DVD, and Matlaqa is likely off somewhere bragging about being an Ohio State alumn, or about having made a successful film — hard to tell really…