BRIEFING: Hany Abu-Assad at the opening of the Ajyal Youth Film Festival in Doha.
By Anand Holla
A sparkling portrait of Palestinian pop star Mohammed Assaf, who won the Arab Idol at the age of 23 and instantly blossomed into a symbol of hope and glory for his countrymen, The Idol has received bundles of love across the world, ever since it made a splash at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.
As the opening film of the third edition of Doha Film Institute’s Ajyal Youth Film Festival, it met with a similar rousing wave of cheer here, drawing sharp focus to acclaimed Palestinian filmmaker Hany Abu-Assad’s first shift towards a commercial, crowd-pleasing entertainer — a departure from his preoccupation with ideas of the struggle, resistance and a deep sense of longing for Palestine.
Yet, The Idol weaves in reality’s ironies and the daily struggles of life in Palestine as a throbbing undercurrent in the narrative; a painstakingly uphill task suited only for a man of Abu-Assad’s calibre and body of work.
Of his half a dozen films, Abu-Assad is best known for the Oscar-nominated works — Paradise Now (2005), which tells the controversial story of two Palestinian men planning a suicide attack on Tel Aviv; and Omar (2013), which takes us into the lives of a young Palestinian baker drawn into romance with Nadia, a schoolgirl, against the backdrop of political violence and espionage, among other things.
To bring 26-year-old Assaf’s story to the big screen and angle for the commercial appeal, Abu-Assad had to embrace certain creative liberties such as throwing in a fictional childhood friend Omar, or focusing on Assaf’s bond with his sister to enhance drama even though he has six brothers and sisters in reality. As the much-awaited film reaches Doha’s shores — you can catch it at the festival at 11pm on Thursday — the Oscar-nominated director settles down for a chat with Community last afternoon.
You have clearly steered away from your usual theme, tone and treatment. How has the experience been?
When you are making a movie about a real person, you don’t have complete freedom. The director is like a cook, and when he has to make a feature film, he has a stash of ingredients that he can choose from; be it the choicest of vegetables or meat. But when you have a real person, you have to work with just rice and zucchini. You will then have to add some select spices and turn it into a Hany Abu-Assad movie. My trademark, for instance, is tragicomedy. In very dark moments, I make a joke, and in a very light moment, the situation turns very dark. Yet, you are very limited to the available ingredients. So, this was a challenge I haven’t ever faced before. I feel like I succeeded in this challenge because there is a lot of fun in the film. This is what I wanted because I want to share this experience with as many people as possible. You see, a lot of people in the world want to be entertained before they want to be moved, or made to think, or pushed to ponder about the darker side of life. That’s why I decided to entertain the audience with The Idol.
Is this a break you have taken from your brand of intense, thought-stirring cinema, or is it the beginning of a new direction for your filmmaking journey?
Yes, I really want to go ahead with this experience. Nowadays, the wider audience has been left at the mercy of movies with bad taste or the Hollywood fare. Most of the entertainment has been left to the big studios. As an artiste, you have a role. Why must you leave these people to the sharks? I would like to entertain as well. I want to go even wider in the scope of entertainment with my next venture. That said, it’s not just entertainment; you are sharing experiences, feelings, and there’s a kind of depth in the story that the wider audience can also be exposed to rather than just those movies that carry the simplicity of Walt Disney. I want to take the responsibility so as to let them experience deep, dark and heavy things… in a light way.
You had to shoot the film in trying times, such as the aftermath of the Gaza bombings, last year. What was the most challenging part about creating this film?
The biggest challenge was shooting in Gaza under siege as it reeled under the thick of destruction. Also, it was difficult to enter and exit the place. But this is the obvious outside obstacle. As a filmmaker, the inside obstacle was in creating a story of a person who has his own life. It was hard to choose what to leave, what to highlight, and where to put everything and how, so as to make it acceptable for me, for Assaf, and for the wider audience.
Do you pay a lot of attention to your style and subtlety in conveying an emotion?
In the beginning of your career as a director, you do things subconsciously because that’s what you like. You know what you like and you know which movies you adore and are influenced by, and subconsciously, you kind of restructure the bits of the movies that you like. Later, as you become more conscious of what you are doing, you become more sophisticated in using the creative tools at your disposal. As you turn older and grow more aware of what you are doing, you sharpen your craft.
How was it working with Mohammed Assaf, who is already a star?
Working with Mohammed was very inspiring but also very tiring. I think I understand him, the most of all. I, too, have gone through his journey of being nothing to everything, but on a very small scale. I was an unknown filmmaker, but after Paradise Now, I was an Oscar-nominated director, recognised at the Golden Globes, Berlin Film Festival, Dubai Film Festival, et al. This transition is tiring and confusing. By looking at Assaf, I understand what I did wrong when I was in that phase. I understand why people around me felt tired because everybody is trying to get his or her project done through you. When you become successful, everybody has a project for you — the one who wants to earn money, and also the one who want to help others. So I kept understanding myself better by looking through him.
What is your favourite moment from the film?
There are too many. I can’t share ones that reveal the story. The biggest moments to me, though, were working with the children, and seeing them being brave and emotionally naked. It’s amazing how honest they could be with their emotions, and in working on themselves for the characters. It was incredibly inspiring.
Looking back at your filmography, how do you see yourself? Do you think you have grown closer to your own creative voice?
I think I now finally accept myself as an artiste. For 25 years, I have been making films and I never accepted myself as an artiste. It’s a big thing to be an artiste, and it’s not easy. Just recently, I started to accept that I might be an artiste (laughs). I have started accepting that I know how to make movies that can resonate with a lot of audience; from India to China to the US to the Arabic world. I am now accepting that I “probably” have this in me.
That’s rather modest of you. What is the best compliment you have got for The Idol, thus far?
The best compliment has been to see that a lot of audience had simultaneous mixed feelings; like they would be laughing and crying at the same moment. It’s nice to see how tragicomedy works. Maybe I am becoming a master at achieving this (laughs).
