WARDA is an Arabic language movie I watched on Netflix with English subtitles.
Structurally and thematically, WARDA is simply yet another supernatural/paranormal/horror movie of the found footage variety. As far as I can tell, there is absolutely nothing about it to distinguish it from any of dozens of other movies of the same ilk.
This fact notwithstanding, I found WARDA to be fascinating not because of its content or themes, which are unoriginal and run-of-the-mill, but because it came from a culture and context completely different from any other found footage horror movie I have seen thus far. Bear in mind that this only says something about me and not about the movie.
In the interests of full disclosure, my ignorance with respect to present day Egypt is both profound and complete. I'm fairly knowledgeable about ancient Egypt and the various royal dynasties throughout history, but my knowledge of Egypt props off sharply after the death of Cleopatra. I know almost nothing about the culture and context of the Egypt of today. What little I DO know is undoubtedly very negatively biased because it is composed almost exclusively of what I have read in popular media. This is almost entirely news stories either about Middle East conflict or stories about individual people getting into legal trouble in Egypt about cultural or politically sensitive faux pas's that would be relatively trivial issues of free speech in America. My attitude regarding Egypt is that it would be a mistake for me to go there because I would undoubtedly step on some cultural/legal/political landmines and get myself into trouble. So my thoughts on Egypt are mostly made up of fear, ignorance and political superstition.
Given my limited and probably distorted view of Egypt, I was very surprised to see a found footage horror film unfold in a manner nearly indistinguishable from what I'm accustomed to but with Egyptian flavoring which, somehow, to me, made it a novel experience. In my ignorance, I would have THOUGHT that some of the depictions in this movie would have gotten the makers into trouble with Egyptian authorities.
In and of itself, there is absolutely nothing at all unexpected about the plot. A young Egyptian man by the name of Walid returns home from the Netherlands where he is been living for the last several years in order to film an ad hoc documentary regarding the apparently supernatural goings-on back at his family home. The story takes place in a small Egyptian village, Kafr Al Batanun, which, interestingly, is a real place about 83 km north of Cairo. To aid in the filming, he has brought his Tunisian girlfriend Amna along with him.
Apparently, not long after Walid's father's death, Walid's sister, the titular Warda, has begun showing signs of demonic possession. This is why Walid has returned home: to document the goings-on with the objective of posting what he films as a documentary on his blog. With this set up, pretty much everything unfolds in the utterly predictable found footage way. Things start slow, cameras get set up everywhere throughout the house, the frequency and seriousness of the supernatural incidents begin to accelerate finally culminating in the violent, demonically-driven deaths of almost everybody concerned.
Particularly interesting to me was seeing how everything unfolded in keeping with the archetypical found footage recipe but with an Egyptian flavor sprinkled on top. The every day, "average" home being depicted was an Egyptian home, which looks pretty different from a Western home. Any religious proceedings that happen in the hopes of ejecting the demon are apparently based on Islamic tradition instead of, say, Catholic. The presence of the girlfriend, Amna, is a source of some strain and conflict within the household given Egyptian sensibilities and she is eventually cordially ejected when a bottle of alcohol is found on the premises. And so on.
I gave the movie a 5/10 because, in the final analysis, it simply wasn't that good of a movie and it's certainly not of a particularly high caliber. My personal enjoyment of it was more a statement of my own ignorance than anything intrinsic to the movie.
But I will say if you'd like the same old fare with a little Arabic spice on it for a slightly "different" found footage experience, you might give it a look. For a Westerner, it was something new.
Structurally and thematically, WARDA is simply yet another supernatural/paranormal/horror movie of the found footage variety. As far as I can tell, there is absolutely nothing about it to distinguish it from any of dozens of other movies of the same ilk.
This fact notwithstanding, I found WARDA to be fascinating not because of its content or themes, which are unoriginal and run-of-the-mill, but because it came from a culture and context completely different from any other found footage horror movie I have seen thus far. Bear in mind that this only says something about me and not about the movie.
In the interests of full disclosure, my ignorance with respect to present day Egypt is both profound and complete. I'm fairly knowledgeable about ancient Egypt and the various royal dynasties throughout history, but my knowledge of Egypt props off sharply after the death of Cleopatra. I know almost nothing about the culture and context of the Egypt of today. What little I DO know is undoubtedly very negatively biased because it is composed almost exclusively of what I have read in popular media. This is almost entirely news stories either about Middle East conflict or stories about individual people getting into legal trouble in Egypt about cultural or politically sensitive faux pas's that would be relatively trivial issues of free speech in America. My attitude regarding Egypt is that it would be a mistake for me to go there because I would undoubtedly step on some cultural/legal/political landmines and get myself into trouble. So my thoughts on Egypt are mostly made up of fear, ignorance and political superstition.
Given my limited and probably distorted view of Egypt, I was very surprised to see a found footage horror film unfold in a manner nearly indistinguishable from what I'm accustomed to but with Egyptian flavoring which, somehow, to me, made it a novel experience. In my ignorance, I would have THOUGHT that some of the depictions in this movie would have gotten the makers into trouble with Egyptian authorities.
In and of itself, there is absolutely nothing at all unexpected about the plot. A young Egyptian man by the name of Walid returns home from the Netherlands where he is been living for the last several years in order to film an ad hoc documentary regarding the apparently supernatural goings-on back at his family home. The story takes place in a small Egyptian village, Kafr Al Batanun, which, interestingly, is a real place about 83 km north of Cairo. To aid in the filming, he has brought his Tunisian girlfriend Amna along with him.
Apparently, not long after Walid's father's death, Walid's sister, the titular Warda, has begun showing signs of demonic possession. This is why Walid has returned home: to document the goings-on with the objective of posting what he films as a documentary on his blog. With this set up, pretty much everything unfolds in the utterly predictable found footage way. Things start slow, cameras get set up everywhere throughout the house, the frequency and seriousness of the supernatural incidents begin to accelerate finally culminating in the violent, demonically-driven deaths of almost everybody concerned.
Particularly interesting to me was seeing how everything unfolded in keeping with the archetypical found footage recipe but with an Egyptian flavor sprinkled on top. The every day, "average" home being depicted was an Egyptian home, which looks pretty different from a Western home. Any religious proceedings that happen in the hopes of ejecting the demon are apparently based on Islamic tradition instead of, say, Catholic. The presence of the girlfriend, Amna, is a source of some strain and conflict within the household given Egyptian sensibilities and she is eventually cordially ejected when a bottle of alcohol is found on the premises. And so on.
I gave the movie a 5/10 because, in the final analysis, it simply wasn't that good of a movie and it's certainly not of a particularly high caliber. My personal enjoyment of it was more a statement of my own ignorance than anything intrinsic to the movie.
But I will say if you'd like the same old fare with a little Arabic spice on it for a slightly "different" found footage experience, you might give it a look. For a Westerner, it was something new.
