Ma tigi Nor’os–An Egyptian-Style Dance Film

  There are more inspirational dancing films in Hollywood than you can shake a stick at. For one reason or another, the idea of a film where people use dancing to get through tough times is just one cliché that directors love to use over and over again. Don’t get me wrong—I love to dance, I just think that the films could be a little more original.

            Last night I watched another dancing film, only this time it was via the Egyptian Film backlots, not Hollywood. The film, Ma Tigi Norqos, was a sort of cross between J.Lo’s Shall We Dance? and Antonio Banderas’ Take the Lead (or any other dance film, for that matter): it centered around a dance studio full of your atypical dancer types who are prepping up for a big public performance in none other than the City Stars Mall in Heliopolis. You’ve got the meathead-but-oddly-charming hottie dance instructor (Tamer Hagras) who everyone swoons over; the outlandish and brass female dance instructor with what appears to be purple ribbons (or hair dye) streaking her hair; two lumpy and cluelessly-dressed oddballs who just want to get with her; an officer-worker who can dance surprisingly well and a bunch of young hijab-wearing girls who get “down and dirty” in the r&b sessions.

Actor Tamer Hagras

            The focus, however, is mostly on one older woman (actress Yousra) who looks not unlike some American mother. She wears glasses, arrives in her frumpy office clothes and is generally timid and clueless; however, she is not too timid, as even this non-Arabic speaker could figure out that she was bored with her life (and her inattentive, boring, strict husband) and had decided to take a leap and do something exciting. The catch is that neither her husband nor her teenage son know that she’s taking dance lessons, so she has to sneak around and hide, which eventually leads her husband to believe that she is having an affair.

Ma Tigi Norqos

            If the film had been American, would I have liked it, despite the typical dance cliché? I would say yes: there were many comedic moments (American dance films are usually so much more serious, with the pep talks and you-can-do-it! Speeches) such as the scene where the crazy dance instructor gets poked in the derriere with a pole (the klutzy lumpy guys are balancing them on their shoulders as they dance) and the front-desk lady gives her a block off ice to sit on. (What I wouldn’t give to have known what they were saying in this scene!) Although our protagonist argues with her husband, there is none of the stereotypical “down-and-out” scenes where you feel like all is going to go to pot. Even when he catches her tangoing in her office with her fellow co-worker she’s not, like, locked in a closet or something. And even when she lives out her fantasy of tangoing with Mr. Macho Muscles Dance Instructor in private, there’s no hard feelings afterward.

The protagonist (Yousra) with her dance instructor (Tamer Hagras)

            Because the film is Egyptian, you tend to view it’s American storyline in a different light. I personally found the protagonist riveting: here she is, this older lady, going behind her husband’s back to dance. To the over-protective, stuffy Egyptian male of today, having your wife dance—especially to an intimate dance like the tango—with another man would be an absolute no-no. It would be unthinkable. But here she is, dancing with a man probably only a few years older than her teenage son, laughing conspiratorially with her unlikely bedfellows over this and that. The music is modern, the dance sexy, and although she wears a modest billowy leggings-pantsuit for her public performance at the City Stars Mall, the characters and film would not be out of place in a more Westernized setting.

            Music, they say, is the international language. Other people say love is the international language; yet others say food or dance. I say, why not all four? No matter where you go, people are going to be eating, dancing, listening to music and, well, loving! No matter what country you find yourself in, the core of life will be the same; deep down, we all share the same aspirations and passions. If the abundance of dance films like Ma Tigy Naqros are any indication, let’s just dance through life together!

S-L-M

 Links:

http://www.rotana.net/movie/ma+tigi+nor%E2%80%99os+/605/detail

“Offside” is Right in the Center

A girl goes to watch a soccer match ( “football,” if you’re not American). She buys her ticket, finds her seat, and cheers on her team. She holds her breath as the team she supports nears a goal, she groans when the enemy team scores, and when it’s all over, she goes home.

This taken-for-granted act of women across the Western world is one that women in Iran would consider a luxury, or better yet, an impossibility. Even something as simple as a woman going to a football match is forbidden, and no, it’s not because the Iranian government doesn’t want it’s women to become a bunch of tomboys shirking their feminine duty. As the country-boy soldier Samandar says in Offside, it’s because the women will “hear curses that they shouldn’t listen to.” Well, that’s his take, anyways.

Films about the Middle East can be divided into two groups: those that are made just to tell a story, like any movie in Hollywood, and those that are meant (and usually created by a Western director, or a Middle Eastern director with a rebel bent) to show the world some aspect of Middle Eastern culture, which usually means displaying the abject poverty, hopelessness or infringement on civil rights that often exists in many of these countries. However, Jafar Panahi’s film Offside is quite refreshing in that he manages to take a dig at Iran’s ludicrous civil laws and sexism without making one feel miserable. The film tackles just one offshoot or facet of sexism in Iran-the fact that women are not allowed to go to a stadium to watch a sports match-and manages to cover it with humor and lightheartedness.

The film follows the “capture” of several girls who try to sneak into the stadium for Iran’s match against Iran that will qualify it to go to the World Cup games and are quickly caught, despite the fact that they are dressed as boys. Some of the girls are so well-dressed that even the soldiers remark: “Is it a she or he?”

The lovely “boys” listening to the final minutes of the match while en route to the Vice squad:

VERSUS

Their soldier captors (here, gleefully celebrating when Iran beats Bahrain).

The girls, who mock the Middle Eastern stereotype that all girls are docile, quiet and “girly,” are quite the characters and pretty brave (or crazy, if one is similarly football-obsessed) considering that their actions will eventually lead them to the Vice Squad, Iran’s version of the “morality police.” During most of the film they are kept in a pen right outside the stadium walls while waiting for the Army chief to arrive, thus teasing them as they can hear the crowd roar with delight or despair. There’s “Soldier Girl” who get’s to watch the game because she dresses in a rather-authentic military uniform; “Crybaby Girl”  who loses her uncle once they’re inside the stadium; “Chador-Girl”, who hides under the robe she brought when her friend’s father notices her; “Uppity Girl,” who looks very much like a boy and has quite the mouth; “SadGirl,” who tried to attend the game in testament  to her friend, and “Bathroom-Girl,” who stars in the film’s arguably most comedic moment when she demands to be taken to the bathroom. Seeing that she is still recognizable as a girl, the soldiers devise for her an ingenious mask out of a fan poster:

Barely able to see where she’s walking, she’s accompanied to the men’s bathroom(after all, only men’s facilities exist!) and an ensuing melee occurs as Tehrani boys try to enter the bathroom, not knowing that a girl is inside. She runs off while her captor is preoccupied, but eventually returns to the holding pen because she felt bad for the Samandar the country soldier and the cattle he grieves about.

The barbs traded between the girls and the soldiers are intensely funny, so one can only imagine how funny the film must be to a Farsi speaker. Sure, the girls are hitting at hard, cold, and silly truths–”So if I was born in Japan I could attend the match? I was born in the wrong country?”–but the actors are so great that the film is highly enjoyable

 What makes the film so natural and both funny and serious at the same time is that it is realistic. Sure, the characters spar fighting words at times, but the “debate” that goes on is a natural one; in “real life” (as opposed to Hollywood) this is how the scene would play out. The girls haven’t analyzed their points to perfection, complete with passionate speeches, and the boys aren’t stereotypically cruel and ignorant, nor are they stereo-typically charitable.

The final scene, one might say, is pure Hollywood, in that Iran wins the match and in the ensuing pandemonium on the street, the bus transporting the girls (and a firecracker-addicted male youth) stops and when the soldiers get out, the girls make a dash for it. One could almost say that it’s a cheesy perfect ending, except for one factor: apparently, the movie was actually filmed during a real-life match, which meant that the director had two outcomes in mind.

Docu-drama? “Real” fiction? However you want to peg Offside, one adjective should always be used: one-of-a-kind!

S-L-M

Links:

1. Offside on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbc5Fgvc1ko