Initially, I thought this documentary would be like any other documentary that i forced myself to watch; slow, possibly judgmental and phony. How wrong i was proved to be. I was eating my dinner and thought to myself that by the time i finished it, i would turn off my laptop if the documentary was no good. I was wrong and i was stuck between my meal and this movie till practically the end of the movie, and these are the 5 reasons why i like this piece of work so much:
1) Love: It's very touching to see this feeling, best portrayed by the simple conversation between the Tajik boy and his less than fortunate village father, whom with limited knowledge that he had, gave everything he could to better his son, in his own way of course. Also the conversation with the Maldives' girl, whom missed her mother so much during the trip, saying all the lovely good things about her mommy. Her mother's hope for her little girl, though in contrast with her own husband. Another amazing scene was with the outvoted Senegalese boy, perhaps disappointed and disheartened that he was disqualified, later received his own magic moment in one of the mosques in Egypt. He was honored by so many kisses by the masses after wards.
2) Simple Makes Perfect: This movie shuts the door for any of its crew to portray themselves more than the subjects of the movie. The movie connects one segment to another by writing simple one or two liners and let the subjects themselves, through their own natural reactions or interviews dictate the message of the movie. No annoying interviewer!!!
3) Subtle Ideological Difference: This movie subtly and impartially presents contrasting ideological differences within the Islamic community. With the competition and its participants as the background, these differences of ideology are portrayed between the Maldives' girl's father and mother (ie: what's best for the girl in the future), simple conversation in the buses about having Jews living within the Muslim world, worrying concern by the 'moderate' Egyptian Imam and Maldives' ex-leader against the perceived threat of fundamentalism, the Tajik's Principal vs the village school leader. Pheww...some heavy stuff.
4) Quranic Miracle: Can't help but to ponder how the thick holy book in Arabic, 600 in pages, more than 100 in chapters and more than 6000 in verses were easily memorized by these young boys and girls of Islam. What's more amazing, some of them are non-Arabic speakers and they are as young as 7 to 10 years old!!! Maybe their parents do not have PS3 and TV channels at home...but still, the Maldives' girl was playing super Mario and did excel in other non-religious subjects as well. Truly breathtaking...
5) Ugly Truth: Maybe it's just me, but some of the judges' were less than Quranic in their treatment of the Senegalese boy (no, not as cruel as Simon Cowell). What about that interrogation of the Tajik boy after his recitation? Thank God there was one sane man there...By the way, Hosni Mubarak looked very angelic in the movie. Little that he knew that soon he would be...oh well...
1) Love: It's very touching to see this feeling, best portrayed by the simple conversation between the Tajik boy and his less than fortunate village father, whom with limited knowledge that he had, gave everything he could to better his son, in his own way of course. Also the conversation with the Maldives' girl, whom missed her mother so much during the trip, saying all the lovely good things about her mommy. Her mother's hope for her little girl, though in contrast with her own husband. Another amazing scene was with the outvoted Senegalese boy, perhaps disappointed and disheartened that he was disqualified, later received his own magic moment in one of the mosques in Egypt. He was honored by so many kisses by the masses after wards.
2) Simple Makes Perfect: This movie shuts the door for any of its crew to portray themselves more than the subjects of the movie. The movie connects one segment to another by writing simple one or two liners and let the subjects themselves, through their own natural reactions or interviews dictate the message of the movie. No annoying interviewer!!!
3) Subtle Ideological Difference: This movie subtly and impartially presents contrasting ideological differences within the Islamic community. With the competition and its participants as the background, these differences of ideology are portrayed between the Maldives' girl's father and mother (ie: what's best for the girl in the future), simple conversation in the buses about having Jews living within the Muslim world, worrying concern by the 'moderate' Egyptian Imam and Maldives' ex-leader against the perceived threat of fundamentalism, the Tajik's Principal vs the village school leader. Pheww...some heavy stuff.
4) Quranic Miracle: Can't help but to ponder how the thick holy book in Arabic, 600 in pages, more than 100 in chapters and more than 6000 in verses were easily memorized by these young boys and girls of Islam. What's more amazing, some of them are non-Arabic speakers and they are as young as 7 to 10 years old!!! Maybe their parents do not have PS3 and TV channels at home...but still, the Maldives' girl was playing super Mario and did excel in other non-religious subjects as well. Truly breathtaking...
5) Ugly Truth: Maybe it's just me, but some of the judges' were less than Quranic in their treatment of the Senegalese boy (no, not as cruel as Simon Cowell). What about that interrogation of the Tajik boy after his recitation? Thank God there was one sane man there...By the way, Hosni Mubarak looked very angelic in the movie. Little that he knew that soon he would be...oh well...