Hassan and Marcus - Movie Review Example

number 30 April Hassan and Marcus Hassan and Marcus is an Egyptian movie directed by Ramy Imam. Upon its release in 2008 the film achieved instant success but sparked much controversy. In this essay I will dwell on the key message of the film, analyze what important aspects of the Arabian culture, social and religious issues the movie focuses on, discuss how the film deals with the issues of sexuality and gender and explain what made me like this movie. The main reason why I chose watching Hassan and Marcus was the response to the film from both Christian and Muslim parts of Egyptian society. I found the fact that the movie managed to spark so much controversy on both sides quiet interesting and decided to learn what the main reasons for that could be. The storyline of the movie focus on the discrepancies and misunderstanding between Coptic Christians and Muslims that live in Egypt side by side. Although the Egyptian society is not divided into two equal parts based on the religion, as Muslims form absolute majority of the population, the tension between Christians and Muslims is being inflamed into acts of violence against each other from time to time. The creators of the movie decided to look at the whole situation from a different unusual angle having added a considerable portion of irony. Hassan and Marcus is full of unexpected turn of events and the unraveling of the plot puts the protagonists of the story in embarrassing situation every now and then, which gradually ruins their stereotypes regarding human relations and bolsters their religious prejudices. The movie starts with an annual Muslim-Christian conference, where Christian priests and Muslim imams gather together to discuss the ways of peaceful coexistence within Egyptian society, stress on similarities between Egyptian citizens of various religions rather that differences in order to cut the ground from under the feet of sectarian extremists from both sides. However, the director of the movie shows the audience what the participants of this conference whisper about on their way to the building where the event is going to take place and becomes clear that peace between the Muslim majority and Christian minority of the Egyptian society is quite fragile and both sides lack an adequate understanding of the situation in order to conciliate differences once and for all. On the way to the conference Christians chat discontentedly on how the national government allows Muslims building mosques and tends not to give permission to Christians for building a church every now and then. On the other hand, Muslims tut that Christians hold key positions in Egyptian government and rule the country. Obviously, both sides feed speculations with their own delusions and when one of the protagonists of the film, a Christian priest named Boulos, speaks from the high rostrum of the said conference enjoining prudence of both Christians and Muslims he realizes that he endangers himself as his speech will catch the flack amongst extremist religious fractions. On his way home, talking to his mature son who is driving, Boulos suddenly hears a strange sound in their car. His son quickly realizes that there might be a bomb in the car ready to detonate any second. He stops the car and leaves it with his father in a hurry. In a few seconds the car explodes behind the back of Boulos and his son. Having a miraculous escape Boulos decides to accept the offer of the general of police, who arranges the moving of Boulos and his family into another town with new documents and under a fake name of Sheikh Hassan el-Attar in order to secure his safety. Boulos settles down in a house of a faithful Muslim and is forced to pass oneself off as a Muslim together with his son and his wife. Ironically, he immediately gets confused with well-respected Muslim imam of the same name and is forced to take on the role and go to the local mosque and host a reception of hundreds of locals seeking for his spiritual advice on a daily basis. Eventually, Boulos decides to live this town and move to another place where he and his family rent an apartment in the block of flats that belongs to his close friend. By coincidence, Boulos has a neighbor who is forced to be holed up the same way and is being protected from religious extremists within the framework of the same governmental witness protection program. The name of this neighbor is Mahmoud. He is a Muslim Sheikh forced to take his family and move to another place having taken a fake name of Marcos and pretending to be a Christian. The point is after the death of Mahmouds brother, who was one of the leaders of an extremist Muslim organization, the representatives of that organization asked Mahmoud to take the place of his brother and become a leader of the organization. After this offer was rejected by Mahmoud, the extremists set his house and fire and it became obvious that the life of his family members and him is in great danger. That is why Mahmoud decided to take his wife and his daughter and lie low in some other town, the same way his neighbor Boulos did. Being unaware of the true background and identity of each other, Mahmoud and Boulos quickly forged friendship with one another. On top of that, the son of Boulos, Gerges, falls in love with Mahmouds daughter. She falls for him too, but when the time comes and he confesses he is not a Muslim, she leaves him in tears as it is forbidden for a Muslim woman to have a relationship with anyone of other religion than Islam. Being unable to come to terms with the fact that Boulos and his family members are not Muslims and had been lying about who they really were for so long, Mahmoud and his family interrupt their friendship with Boulos and his family. The epic ending of the movies comes with a scene of massive street fight between Muslims and Christians, which results in a conflagration that burns the house where Mahmoud and Boulos live. Mahmoud saves Boulos wife from the fire and when Boulos approaches him they shake hands in a sign of restoring of their friendship despite any religious prejudices. While hundreds of Muslims and Christians around are fighting, Mahmoud, his wife and daughter are walking through this terrible mess undaunted holding hands with Boulos, his son and his wife. The final scene is a powerful metaphor that reminds us how destructive and devastating religious prejudices might get and what consolidating force mutual respect, love for neighbors, tolerance and wisdom could have. To attract attention of the audience the creators of the film gave the leading roles to famous and popular Egyptian actors, such as Adel Emam and Omar Sharif, who played Hassan and Marcos respectively. Eventually, the movie managed to draw huge attention of both critics and ordinary audience in Egypt and broke through into mainstream due to its ironic plot and controversial treatment of contradictions and tensions based on religion. Although the film combined the elements of a dynamic blockbuster and an ironic comedy, the profoundness of the problems that the movie touched upon surely raised the ante as to what a mainstream movie in Egypt might be. Although critics categorized the genre of the movie as a comedy with the elements of a blockbuster, the thought-provocative nature and the scope of controversial religious and philosophical issues that Hassan and Marcus dwell on extend the movie beyond any categorization. The movie praises such aspects of Arab culture as hospitality and huge role of family values in a life of every person, be it a man or a woman. On the other hand, it mocks the artificial divide in a society that religious prejudices feed from generation to generation. The creators of the movie emphasize that religion has to unite people instead of making them grow apart as any major religion like Islam or Christianity preach universal values, such as love for ones neighbors, tolerance and mutual respect. But, unfortunately, people often neglect this fundamental truth in the rage of unnecessary confrontation. The example of Mahmoud and Boulos, or Marcos and Hassan if we speak in terms of their fake identities, shows that Muslims wont die if they enter a Christian church and vice versa and there is absolutely no ground for loathing based on religious differences. In fact, people can always coexist in peace and learn a lot from each other if they put aside religious prejudices. Mahmouds and Boulos families managed to forge a strong friendship and got along well before the religious differences came on stage. Mahmouds daughter and Boulos son fell in love without thinking much of their religious background but had to fall apart once it turned out they belong to different religious confessions. At the same time, even outside of any religious context the aloof manner of Mahmouds daughter with which she treated men that approached to her tell us that she would never have sex before marriage even with the one she loves. This is a bright illustration of how strict and conservative is the division of gender roles within the Arab culture is. However, the main focus of the movie is on the way people are obsessed with artificial restrictions based on religious prejudices. By the friendship between the two Christian and Muslim families the creators of the movie exemplify that seeking for similarities is always a more healthy and constructive way of coexistence within a diverse society that stressing on differences. The irony with which they show the absurdist and destructive nature of communities that let religious prejudices take over the common sense conceals the key message of the whole movie behind it. The creators of the movie appeal to people to value each other for who they really are and personal qualities rather than focusing social stereotypes or religious prejudices, the devastating nature of which was a leitmotif of the movie as well. I must confess, I liked the film a lot for its educative power and irony. Work Cited NewsEgyptEx. "Hassan wa Morcus 2008 Arabic Movies with English Subtitles Youtube." Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 1 Feb. 2013. Web. 29 Apr. 2015. Read More