For a small movie from Jordan, Captain Abu Raed is a remarkably accomplished achievement that bears comparison with the recently release Clint Eastwood film Gran Torino. There are some remarkable similarities in the story, and though the acting and production are not of such a uniformly high standard, there is much to recommend it. The fact that it does not rely on the manipulation of a celebrity image is one point that is very much in its favor.
The Captain Abu Raed of the title is in fact an airport janitor. He is not a captain, but an intellectual who, by one of the many misfortunes that have plagued the Middle East, has lost everything, and despite his fluency in European languages, and possibly other intellectual accomplishments, is now content to clean the floors of Jordan’s international airport.
One day he finds a pilot’s cap discarded in a trashcan. Wearing it on his way home, he is mistaken for a pilot by the kids of his impoverished neighborhood, and soon gets inveigled, against his better judgment, to play the role of a globe-trotting pilot, telling the kids fanciful tales of countries he has never visited.
And so begins his relationship with Sameh and Murad. Sameh reveres Abu Raed, while Murad wants to show the other kids that Abu Raed is an idol with feet of clay. In the end, Abu Raed saves one, but cannot but abandon the other to the fate that awaits all the kids who’s lives are defined by poverty. While the acting spills over into the overwrought dramatic devices of soap opera toward the end, the characters have by this time generated such a degree of sympathy that it is all too easy to ignore the overacting and simply go with the flow.
Nadim Sawalha, a British-based actor who has played Middle Eastern types in everything from The Sweeney to Syriana, holds everything together with a splendidly natural performance, creating a splendid rapport with the cast of street kids in which his own insecurities, as an old man, play off wonderfully against the youthful aggression of characters like Murad. Abu Raed, unlike Eastwood’s character in Gran Torino, doesn’t have a shotgun to back him up, nor the mythology of Dirty Harry.
Rana Sultan provides a sexy contrast to the dumpy Sawalha, as a real airline pilot for Air Jordan. She notices Abu Raed as he helps out a French tourist and they become friends, sheltered by their discrepancy in age and social status. Sultan, who is a well-known television personality in the Middle East, seems comfortable in the film medium, and manages to be glamorous without trying to steal the show, which rightfully belong to the child actors Nadim Mushahwar (Sameh) and Hussein Al-Sous (Murad).
Captain Abu Raed indicates that director Amin Matalqa, a Jordanian-born American, is someone to watch. He seems comfortable working within his Jordanian heritage, avoiding the exoticism and caricature of his characters. One of the highlights of the film is a glimpse of daily life in Amman that manages to eschew touristic cliches. That in itself is no mean achievement.
April 28 to May 4 During the Japanese colonial era, a city’s “first” high school typically served Japanese students, while Taiwanese attended the “second” high school. Only in Taichung was this reversed. That’s because when Taichung First High School opened its doors on May 1, 1915 to serve Taiwanese students who were previously barred from secondary education, it was the only high school in town. Former principal Hideo Azukisawa threatened to quit when the government in 1922 attempted to transfer the “first” designation to a new local high school for Japanese students, leading to this unusual situation. Prior to the Taichung First
When the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese forces 50 years ago this week, it prompted a mass exodus of some 2 million people — hundreds of thousands fleeing perilously on small boats across open water to escape the communist regime. Many ultimately settled in Southern California’s Orange County in an area now known as “Little Saigon,” not far from Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, where the first refugees were airlifted upon reaching the US. The diaspora now also has significant populations in Virginia, Texas and Washington state, as well as in countries including France and Australia.
On April 17, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) launched a bold campaign to revive and revitalize the KMT base by calling for an impromptu rally at the Taipei prosecutor’s offices to protest recent arrests of KMT recall campaigners over allegations of forgery and fraud involving signatures of dead voters. The protest had no time to apply for permits and was illegal, but that played into the sense of opposition grievance at alleged weaponization of the judiciary by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to “annihilate” the opposition parties. Blamed for faltering recall campaigns and faced with a KMT chair
Article 2 of the Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China (中華民國憲法增修條文) stipulates that upon a vote of no confidence in the premier, the president can dissolve the legislature within 10 days. If the legislature is dissolved, a new legislative election must be held within 60 days, and the legislators’ terms will then be reckoned from that election. Two weeks ago Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) proposed that the legislature hold a vote of no confidence in the premier and dare the president to dissolve the legislature. The legislature is currently controlled
RSS