Captain Abu Raed (2009)

Simply Perfect

Great Film overall

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

"Captain Abu Raed" is, according to IMDb, the first full-length movie form Jordan in 50 years! Considering all the nice qualities in this one, I sure hope to see more from the Jordanian film industry--though I fear that few will actually see this film or appreciate the film's finer qualities. Sure, it does NOT have a clear ending and is far from formulaic--but there is a lot to like about the picture.Abu Raed (Nadim Sawalha) is a nice middle-aged man who works as a janitor at the airport in Amman, Jordan. However, he's also very lonely and through the course of this film you see him forge some new relationships. It all begins when Abu Raed discovers a pilot's hat in the trash. He takes it home and a child assumes he's a captain working for the airlines. Considering how he dresses and how he lives in a relatively ordinary part of town, you wonder how the kid could believe this. He even tells the kid he's NOT a pilot. However, the next day, a bunch of kids show up at his house and want to hear about his world travels. Again, he tells them he's not a pilot. However, later he relents and tells them all sorts of stories about his supposed exploits--and regales them with stories of pure fiction. However, he's able to fake it reasonably well because although he's a lowly janitor, he's very smart and reads voraciously. In fact, he even can speak a little French and English. This is how he meets his next friend--a lady pilot, Nour (Rana Sultan). They slowly become friends--and an unlikely friendship it is. Where does all this go? See the film. Just don't be surprised it it goes no where near where you expect! The best thing about this film are the characters, character development and dialog. The story itself has many interesting aspects but for me it's all about the characters and the nice, natural acting. This is a very gentle and sweet film--one that is perfect if you are looking for something different. Just be aware, its ending may leave you a little flat if you demand happy or clear endings.

Abu Raed (Nadim Sawalha)is a simple airport janitor at the International Airport in Amman. One day he finds a discarded captain's hat in the garbage.When he wears it on his way home, one of the kids in the neighborhood mistake him for a pilot and wants him to tell about 'his adventures'. Though he is unwilling to tell any story at first, Abu Raed doesn't mind pretending to be the local captain who regales the kids with his 'airborne exploits.' What seems to be a simple,unimportant hat at first turns out to be a treasure trove of love and fun.We later find out that Abu Raed is a guy who resists being an embittered, hardened old man in spite of the fact that he lost his wife and his only child. Though he is a simple janitor, he speaks profoundly from the heart. He is well-read and wise. He even has a smattering of a few European languages.With such an original story, truly moving picture and convincing acting you just want it to be bit more fast-paced actually. Since there are lots of subplots in the movie, during almost more than half of the movie you just wonder which set of events (or people) will be regarded less important. Whose story will be developed? The story of Nour (Rana Sultan), a female pilot whose wealthy father poorly tries to find her a husband or the story of the local kid Tareq (Udey Al-Qiddissi)who is forced into child labor by his father instead of going to school? In the end, Amin Matalqa chooses to tell the story of Abu Murad whose mother constantly gets beaten by his abusive father. Though you can't tell everyone's story in a feature length movie, Mataqa's finalizing all these subplots in a finale in the last twenty minutes leaves a half-baked flavor in your cinematic enjoyment and you wish it were a better-paced and better-edited movie but that doesn't mean Abu Raed is not a movie that's worth every minute of your time.It is purely humanitarian,truly moving movie which somehow gets to you. The pièce de résistance, however, is the fact that this movie Amin Matalqa's feature length debut.

This is a film that anyone who has known an old Arab man can not help but love. The rest of humanity will be starting at a disadvantage, but love is still a very distinct possibility. At the same time, if all you look for in a film is lighting and other composition relate things you still will be pleased. It is not flawless, but the sublime moments overpower any fault finding reflexes in me. This film actually bridges and melds together Arab and Western film. Something that the various subcultures of the Arab World have already done to varying degrees in their real lives, but for some reason (pick your own) the arts have lagged behind. The good, bad and ugly were all shown true to life; which isn't the norm in the conservative world of Arabic language film. At the same time the film overflowed with that charm and generosity that is so central in Arab culture. I am an American with Arab roots, which might play a part in my great affection for this film; it might only be really good instead of really really good. Oh my! I almost forgot Rana Sultan, which would have been almost sinful. Every once in a while there is that character in a film (and in real life too) that just dazzles with charm and beauty (Audrey Hepburn and Virginia Madsen are two others that jump to my mind). Her vivacious, powerful, and stunning character filled the screen. It's always nice to fall in love, even if it is only for 102 minutes.

First of all the film Captain Abu Raed is unexceptional. I am also one of those people who have to take into consideration the director behind the film. I am disappointed with Amin Matalqa's reply to a comment by Elia.Mr. Matalqa claims his film is Jordanian because it's 100% Jordanian funded. Does that mean other Jordanian films who were denied funding by local Jordanian sources because they don't have Mr. Matalqa's connections that those films are not Jordanian films? Famous Jordanian director Mahmoud Massad, maker of the award-wining documentary Recycle (winner of Sundance World Cinematography Award) did not receive a penny of support in Jordan. So he won a few funding competitions at the Berlinale World Cinema Fund and San Sebastian. Mr. Matalqa wants to tell us that Mr. Mahmoud Massad's film is not Jordanian. That's fantastic. So all a third world regime has to do is to make laws forbidding funding for filmmakers they don't like and that makes these black-listed films foreign films? I am glad film festivals do not go by Mr. Matalqa's definition of a national film.Then Mr. Matalqa attacks Najdat Anzour's film Oriental Tale (1991) accusing it of not being a Jordanian film because Mr. Anzour is not Jordanian. But the actors and the script and the shooting location are Jordanians. And by the way, Najdat Anzour has the Jordanian passport. That makes him Jordanian as well as Syrian.But even if the film follows the nationality of the filmmaker, does that mean all of Roman Polanski's films are French or Polish? There are other Hollywood filmmakers who are not American. Yet there films classify as Americans. Mr. Matalqa wants to change all of that just for his film's sake and to exclude other Jordanian films and filmmakers from the spot light. Too drastic.Mr. Matalqa claims that because a film is French funded, that it's not Jordanian. That means 90% of films made in the third world are French or German or Italian films? What about countries that can't afford to fund films. What about repressive regimes who ban funding for filmmakers critical of the status quo? It would be a great day for repression if Mr. Matalqa gets his way with his new funding criteria and national identity.As for the Jordanian feature film the Mission (2007), again Mr. Matalqa insults the filmmakers by making fantastic statements as to why his film is still number one. He says "The Mission was filmed in July 2007, one month after Captain Abu Raed" So? it was screened before Captain Abu Raed in Jordan. This must be a new role where the film's year of production is decided by the day the camera starts rolling for the first time."and was never released in cinemas nor festivals." Another bizarre rule Mr. Matalqa invented. Many films screen in art houses and cultural centers and not paid commercial theaters. They still count as films. They still exist. The Mission is a film that was made and screened in Jordan in more than one cultural center under the patronage of royalty. It's a real film."I also understand it was shot with TV video cameras" Again, Mr. Matalqa denigrates the film because of the limited means of the filmmaker. We know of films that had won international acclaim that shot with a simple video camera. That's the whole idea behind Dogme 95 and other film-making schools. Even Oliver Stone used a TV video camera to make some of his great films.Mr. Matalqa is so eager to monopolize the spotlight that he is willing to hurt so many other filmmakers and to change the whole international system by which films are classified and judged. Wouldn't be much easier to make a good film and leave us to decide? I hope Mr. Matalqa changes his stance instead of digging deeper and deeper and offending more and more people.It's all about the quality of the film. So give it a rest Mr. Matalqa.