10 November 2005
BEIRUT: We have seen these pictures before. Running people. Scared, totally shocked. Something inconceivable must have happened. The imagery in Fadi al-Benny's documentary "That Monday," which screened Tuesday night as part of Beirut's DocuDays film festival at the Medina Theater, unavoidably rouses memories of September 11, 2001, but it is about the events of another tragedy on February 14, 2005, when Benny became a witness of the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri.
Just a few minutes after he heard the massive blast, the 25- year-old Lebanese photographer found himself racing to the crime scene, capturing the horror with his camera. "Each time I see these pictures my heart is bouncing again" says Benny. "I still cannot believe it."
Mohammad Hashem, foun-der and director of DocuDays says Benny's seven-minute documentary is a remarkable catch of the moment, adding the time for a more profound, political documentary has not yet come. Still, the political overtones are perceptible at DocuDays.
A fine example is "Take Me," a film by the Egyptian filmmaker Tamer El Said, telling the story of five Moroccan friends who were kidnapped and imprisoned for nine years in a notorious secret prison.
The background is Kafka-esque - nobody has ever told the men why they were arrested or why they were eventually released. "Take Me" (the title is borrowed from a famous song of Arab leftists) revisits the harrowing memories of the former prisoners. The film pretends not to condemn a particular country or regime, but its attack on the policies of torture and humiliation is clear.
"Two Hands" by Fabio Wuytack, is another enriching contribution. It tells the tale of one of only four existing heart surgeons in Palestine - Mohammad Tamim, a man who works wonders with his two hands, and became a war surgeon during the second Intifada.
In one scene, while operating on a boy who was shot in the chest, another boy with similar wounds cries for help. "I have only two hands," the surgeon says. His hands symbolizing combat, putting humanity at the center of a lagging conflict.
"A Stranger In The City" meanwhile by Yemeni Khadija al-Salami broaches the issue of women's rights in the Arab world but does not go on an all out attack. The hero is Najmia, a 13-year-old Yemeni girl who dares to walk through the magical ancient town of Sanaa refusing to wear the traditional abaya and showing her bare curls in the sunlight. It is a challenge to centuries of ancestral patriarchal tradition that she gets away with.
The DocuDays film festival continues nightly until Friday. For more information go to www.docudays.com
