I watched this yesterday after years (okay, a few) of waiting since I first heard it was being made and giiirrrrll it was a really good show! It's essentially a chick flick of the *white woman goes to another country to find herself trope but it actually worked out okay! It has none of the smugness and superiority complex that other shows employing the same trope tend to exhibit. And the best part? The heroine doesn't end up with the guy she was chasing. Haha!
The main character, Lola, played by the lovely Laura Ramsey is such a joy to watch. She has the right mix of impulsive and chutzpah without ending up as a silly damsel needing of help in a foreign land. And of course, you won't find any whiny, self-pitying bullshit here either! Bad things may have happened but she doesn't let them bring her down. Case in point, below.
Lola dancing with one of the Egyptian nightclub dancers who used to hate her
As you can imagine, a **blonde foreigner coming into your turf and getting all the tips would piss you off. So of course the local dancers were at first annoyed with her. But she eventually won them over by playing fair and not subscribing to competition. Something which all of us should learn I think. I've heard ladies saying that belly dance contains a higher amount of cat fights and bitching than any other dance. It doesn't have to be that way man.
The dancing is good enough but what I personally like the most was the showmanship. Lola exhibited more stage presence than most other trained bellydancers I've seen live. Perhaps it's because she's played by an actress? Ah here is of course another lesson to be learn. It will not do to simply concentrate really hard on doing the most number of tricks and end up forgetting to dance with the music and to the audience.
I love that the movie passes the Bechdel test too. It definitely has more than 2 women talking to each other about things other than men in it. My favourite line was when Ismahan consoles Lola and drives home the point that one should only dance for one's self and never for any man. The movie shows some pretty strong women too, never needing a man to rescue them. In fact, I think the men are shown weaker in this. With the exception of Yussef, the gay best friend and Adham, the blind wise butler. I reject the view that the characteristics of these men are 'weak'. Blindness and homosexuality are not weak qualities. Selfishness, chauvinism and cowardice are.
It's also interesting the way society treats women who commit adultery. Unthinkable for the married woman but if it's a married man doing it, it's all acceptable because he's a man. So no, I don't have a problem with the adultery mentioned in the film. In a religion that allows men to marry up to 4 wives, it is somehow blasphemous to think that a married woman can also fall in love with another man. It shows too how much more badly the woman is treated. Ismahan's lover, Nasser, calls himself a ladies man yet it is obvious that he was never penalised for being one.
I love too that the hypocrisy of Muslim men is pointed out in the film. Some, not all of course, think it's okay to have fun with the "clueless sex-crazy"*** foreigner and then marry the religious, pious lady who will bear him many sons and keep chaste while he goes out and strays some more. I like that there was no nasty confrontation, no ridiculous scenes where the two affected women duke it out over the affections of that one useless man. Sisters before misters I say.
Ultimately, it is a story about following your dreams and if I may extrapolate a little, the value of being kind and respectful to people. For that, I can forgive the ease in which Lola manages to become a top dancer in Cairo though here too I am willing to suspend disbelief if only for the fact that the movie alludes to Ismahan being the best dancer therefore being able to craft the best dancer out of a bumbling foreigner like Lola. It has some stereotypes like the gay best friend and the wise, blind butler but I think these worked okay this time and were not too jarring.
Do watch it if you're a bellydancer or just a dance enthusiast! The performances are lovely and the best part, I think, are the moments where the love for dance and performing showed through on the actors' faces. I love those moments! If you're a dancer, I'm sure you'll feel something more too after the show.
Here's a music video of the soundtrack which Lola eventually dances to:
Ah Natacha Atlas, what a lovely diva you are!
*Most definitely frustrating to have the white character come to the foreign land and change lives and make everyone want to do better. But ah, this is one trope that is hard to dislodge. For the sheer loveliness of this movie, I'm willing to let it slide and see them all as just flawed human beings with much work without having the extra baggage of the wrongs that their ancestors did and carried forth. And it's also important to note that Lola doesn't do much 'educating'. The voice of reason in this story comes from Adham.
**This is never fair. When looks and exoticism are prized more than talent so I love that the movie never attempted to gloss over this unfortunate fact. Ismahan retorts that the only reason Lola was invited to perform was because she was blonde and American. But to be fair to Lola, it was probably a mixture of both as the movie gave great pains to show that Ismahan was the best dancer of her time.
***Of course the women are not like that but that's how the men view them. The movie highlights this perfectly when Lola is accosted by some idiot teenager, and then later an old man, demanding to have sex with her. The implication is that foreign women are 'easy' and sex-crazed something that even her Egyptian boyfriend hinted at (asshole that he is).
And an appropriate closing video. hehehhee
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