I am a big fan of Nadine Labaki's work, whether in music videos (that's what they are called, not "video clip", and it is "making of" not "making off", as most music videos write in their credits) acting, or movies. Sikar Banet a.k.a Caramel or vice versa was a beautiful directorial debut by Labaki that enveloped many interesting realistic themes into one coherent body of work.
After watching Where Do We Go Now? I could not help but notice the same thing I observed when I watched Caramel that again Nadine tried to cram many themes into one movie without really dwelling on one theme resulting in my opinion in those themes missing further depths and exploration and being nothing but presentations of certain ideas and messages, explicitly the theme of Sectarianism and implicitly themes of Western interference suggested by the Ukrainian girls coming in to divert the men's fueled up hatred and anger towards their fellow man of a different religion than their own, and drug use suggested by the use of sedative medications and other drugs being mixed with the food presented to those men, etc.
It was a bit annoying to me that throughout the movie we see glimpses of a potential relationship between a Muslim and a Christian Amale (Labaki) but without really delivering anything about it in the end other than they fight in the café where Amale kicks her love interest out and scorns both sides for fighting over silly issues and insulting one another, so what was really the point behind all those eye contacts and the dance in the café? If the point was just to show that their love was to symbolize and stress that there is no difference between Muslims and Christians and yes they could fall in love despite all the odds and differences, then that point was loud and clear from the first eye contact that takes place between Amale and her man, there was no need to keep on repeating it. Speaking of the differences between Muslims and Christians, the writers are clearly telling us that hey people wake up there is no difference between us, One God created us all equal on this earth to live in peace, love, and harmony, okay we as Lebanese people already know that, there is no disagreement about it, so the writers presented us with no new idea but a potential solution and that in order to make a difference we should start with ourselves, even that solution seems to be as a given and a fact hence nothing really new about it.
The main plot of the story is that women of different religions living in one village come up with schemes to divert their men's attention from the fights going on the city between Muslims and Christians and the religious tension between them, I found that idea to be really interesting especially that it could be carry humor and lighthearted actions about a very serious matter without being really too blunt and aggressive, an approach I felt was very smart on Labaki and the other writers' behalf, in other words they come up with a story and script that was easy on the viewer's eyes to watch, whether that viewer is strictly religious, moderately religious, or not religious at all and I think that's what impressed the audience and made them enjoy this movie so much and got it those excellent reviews and feedback. As for me and for my own taste, I found this approach or those schemes to be too theatrical, too convenient, and too ideal and I don't believe that story could ever happen anywhere in the world, but still any movie does not need to be an exact mirror of life, it could be an exaggerated reflection in order to get the point across, so I guess if it works, it works.
Another matter that bothered me is the use of extremes by Nadine and the writers, where they present us with all the Muslim women characters or roles wearing the veil or 'hijab', not all Muslim women are veiled, are we to think that visually or content wise we can't be convinced of any Muslim female character unless she was veiled? The Muslim family in Caramel was properly justified concerning the sensitivity of the premarital sex issue but what was the point of it in this movie? There could have been at least one female unveiled Muslim role, which brings me to the accent used by some of the Muslim characters in the movie especially the role of Hammoudi and his mom, they spoke with a pure Beiruty accent, not ever Muslim Sunni has a beiruty accent, and speaking of accents, Hammoudi's accent changes throughout the movie especially in the scene where he stands outside's Nassim's room.
(THIS PART CONTAINS SPOILERS)in one scenes we see a female Christian woman wearing black and veiled praying on the prayer carpet and then at the end of the prayer she turns her head sideways from left to right where it should be from right to left, if that was intentional on Nadine and the writers' behalf since the character is Christian she does not know exactly how to pray, then I believe that is a contradictory story mistake since the Christian ought to have learned right the way to pray from his fellow Muslim in accordance to their original plan which was to switch religions; however if that was not intentional, then I guess that was just a simple error committed by the writers in researching the details of the Muslim praying.
All in all it is a fun and inspiring movie by an inspiring and rising director star and I as a Lebanese am mighty proud of Nadine and her work, keep up the great work.
After watching Where Do We Go Now? I could not help but notice the same thing I observed when I watched Caramel that again Nadine tried to cram many themes into one movie without really dwelling on one theme resulting in my opinion in those themes missing further depths and exploration and being nothing but presentations of certain ideas and messages, explicitly the theme of Sectarianism and implicitly themes of Western interference suggested by the Ukrainian girls coming in to divert the men's fueled up hatred and anger towards their fellow man of a different religion than their own, and drug use suggested by the use of sedative medications and other drugs being mixed with the food presented to those men, etc.
It was a bit annoying to me that throughout the movie we see glimpses of a potential relationship between a Muslim and a Christian Amale (Labaki) but without really delivering anything about it in the end other than they fight in the café where Amale kicks her love interest out and scorns both sides for fighting over silly issues and insulting one another, so what was really the point behind all those eye contacts and the dance in the café? If the point was just to show that their love was to symbolize and stress that there is no difference between Muslims and Christians and yes they could fall in love despite all the odds and differences, then that point was loud and clear from the first eye contact that takes place between Amale and her man, there was no need to keep on repeating it. Speaking of the differences between Muslims and Christians, the writers are clearly telling us that hey people wake up there is no difference between us, One God created us all equal on this earth to live in peace, love, and harmony, okay we as Lebanese people already know that, there is no disagreement about it, so the writers presented us with no new idea but a potential solution and that in order to make a difference we should start with ourselves, even that solution seems to be as a given and a fact hence nothing really new about it.
The main plot of the story is that women of different religions living in one village come up with schemes to divert their men's attention from the fights going on the city between Muslims and Christians and the religious tension between them, I found that idea to be really interesting especially that it could be carry humor and lighthearted actions about a very serious matter without being really too blunt and aggressive, an approach I felt was very smart on Labaki and the other writers' behalf, in other words they come up with a story and script that was easy on the viewer's eyes to watch, whether that viewer is strictly religious, moderately religious, or not religious at all and I think that's what impressed the audience and made them enjoy this movie so much and got it those excellent reviews and feedback. As for me and for my own taste, I found this approach or those schemes to be too theatrical, too convenient, and too ideal and I don't believe that story could ever happen anywhere in the world, but still any movie does not need to be an exact mirror of life, it could be an exaggerated reflection in order to get the point across, so I guess if it works, it works.
Another matter that bothered me is the use of extremes by Nadine and the writers, where they present us with all the Muslim women characters or roles wearing the veil or 'hijab', not all Muslim women are veiled, are we to think that visually or content wise we can't be convinced of any Muslim female character unless she was veiled? The Muslim family in Caramel was properly justified concerning the sensitivity of the premarital sex issue but what was the point of it in this movie? There could have been at least one female unveiled Muslim role, which brings me to the accent used by some of the Muslim characters in the movie especially the role of Hammoudi and his mom, they spoke with a pure Beiruty accent, not ever Muslim Sunni has a beiruty accent, and speaking of accents, Hammoudi's accent changes throughout the movie especially in the scene where he stands outside's Nassim's room.
(THIS PART CONTAINS SPOILERS)in one scenes we see a female Christian woman wearing black and veiled praying on the prayer carpet and then at the end of the prayer she turns her head sideways from left to right where it should be from right to left, if that was intentional on Nadine and the writers' behalf since the character is Christian she does not know exactly how to pray, then I believe that is a contradictory story mistake since the Christian ought to have learned right the way to pray from his fellow Muslim in accordance to their original plan which was to switch religions; however if that was not intentional, then I guess that was just a simple error committed by the writers in researching the details of the Muslim praying.
All in all it is a fun and inspiring movie by an inspiring and rising director star and I as a Lebanese am mighty proud of Nadine and her work, keep up the great work.