*Warning, contains spoilers

West Dawn Media, established in 2010 by Jonathan Abdilla, has created a nugget of movie gold for Muslim audiences. Focusing on typical problems that arise within Muslim marriage, the film opens up questions surrounding what happens when two convert Muslims with not-as-Islamic backgrounds, enter into a Muslim marriage. Change of Heart was officially publicised over the summer and made viral through the West Dawn Media YouTube channel where the movie is available to watch in full.

The Plot
Change Of Heart opens with a walking conversation between a Muslim couple, Maryam and Nour. They have the kindness in their speech of a newly wed and have bonded enough to show some time has passed. They're comfortable with each other, they exude 'muslimness' in their appearance. However, there's a glitch. A glitch that turns into a nightmarish regret, particularly for the husband.

Bumping into an old friend from before he converted to Islam, Nour is told some unsavoury news by Kevin about his wife. What was a typical and acceptable dating lifestyle for the non-Muslim woman, has become a tainted background for the convert wife Maryam. "It's cool, she's changed now", says Kevin, nonchalantly. But Nour only hears "she used to get around, if you know what I mean."

At one of two confrontations, Maryam pleads, "but you knew I wasn't practising (Islam) when I was younger, why are you doing this?" And therein lies the dilemma.

The Ugly Truth
As the movie unfolds, we hear two sides to the convert argument. When a person chooses to accept Islam and become Muslim, essentially his or her background is swiped clean like a formatted hard-drive. Muslims believe past sins are forgiven by the permission of God, and a future of potential and growth awaits. But as Maryam in the movie beautifully notes to her young sister, and is the key that binds the past and present of our lives,

"You know how I say Allah is the most merciful and can forgive all sins?. Well, sometimes, even if Allah forgives a person of their sins - that sin can still affect them in this life."

The ugly truth is in trying to understand a convert's background. How much should he or she share with new founded relationships? Is it fair for a husband or wife to want to know every gritty detail about their partners' past?


And this is what Nour, the "betrayed" husband argues with his tweedle-dum and tweedle-dee friends. One friend jokes with the popular quick-fix, "look, you're having problems with one wife, so what you do is, get another wife and just try to solve it from there, right?"

As a representative of Muslim men, Nour defends his non-Muslim background against his wife. His justification? "It's not the same, it's different for guys". Different. Different how? Different where? This is the area I wanted Change Of Heart to explore deeper. What are his reasons as a Muslim to leave his wife for "her reputation"? Is it hurt, betrayal, dishonesty or all of the above?

We're given two extremes of marital expectations that exist in contemporary Muslim marriages. One is of extreme hope, the other of intense regret. After the revelation of her past the husband instantaneously leaves his wife, and yet he entered the marriage with ideals: "She's like the perfect wife, she even helps me with my deen."

Where's My Apology?
Just over 19 minutes long, there is only so much dialogue a short film can contain. I find myself mentally asking for more script during the stretched-out pauses. I'm asking for an argument between the couple, for more movement, more emotion. More.

A tipping point arrives when during the second confrontation, Maryam demands for her husband to speak about his issues. We see the heartbreak of a man who idolised his wife to the point of denying she could make a mistake. Ex-boyfriends, alcohol and a non-Muslim lifestyle is incomprehensible to this devout Muslim man who, like any other man, loves his wife for her good qualities, not her one-night stands. "It kills me to even think about it." I can sympathise.

But when faced again with his own non-Muslim past, he refutes with gender disparities. He does not even apologise, which was the climactic scene I expected in order for his redemption. I'm relieved that Maryam's character finally says what's in my head:

"How is it different for a guy? Is it different in the sight of Allah?"

A message, truly, for all Muslims. Watch Change Of Heart in full here:


Link to video {http://youtu.be/-7UJVVsIS8A}

Images:: Intellectual property of West Dawn Media ©


More for movie buffs:
Veto Films: 'Just The Face' Documentary on French Burqah Ban
Paradise Now, A Palestinian Mission
'Journey To Mecca' Documentary Of Ibn Battuta
'West Is West' - Film Review

Nelly Moussaid, world karate champion, is a young woman from Marseilles who has chosen to wear the full face veil, the niqab.

Since the September 2010 ban of face-coverings in France however, Nelly and many other woman have found themselves caught between the law and their religious beliefs.

'Just the Face' (Veto Films) is an incisive documentary following five French woman as they struggle with the ban, exploring the issue through contribution from journalists and international academics.

The film is directed by French-Algerian Yacine Helali with over 15 years of international experience in television, and produced by Stephen Lee (Veto Films) and award-winning Andy Jones (BBC2, Channel 4).

Just The Face not only delivers a compelling insight into the lives of the French Muslim women who are directly affected, but also presents exclusive inner thoughts and controversial arguments of politicians, police officers, activists and academics from both sides of the ban.

The film looks into the complex issue of what the ban means for France's image, its people and for the rest of the world as other countries including the United Kingdom may implement the ban.

‘Star of the Niqab’ Kenza Drider is a high profile activist and media critic of the passed law. "This whole law makes France look ridiculous," she says.

"I never thought I'd see the day when France, my France, the country I was born in and I love, the country of liberté, égalité, fraternité, would do something that so obviously violates people's freedom." {The Guardian}

The film follows karate world champion Nelly Moussaid (shown in trailer); housewife and mother Fatima; fashion designer Karima; and ex-hippie Laurence.

The film will show first hand how these women are coping with this law, and what happens when they can't. Will they fight or subvert the law, will they withdraw into their homes or simply find ways to adapt?

As ordinary women are caught between the law and their religious beliefs, Just The Face presents the extraordinary passion and sacrifice that is involved.


Link to video {http://youtu.be/fFq-RD9EX-4}

Just The Face is being launched later this year and still require public attention and funds. "We are asking friends and family like you to kindly help us keep this project alive by making a donation. Large or small, any contribution will truly help and is always highly appreciated." - Yacine Helali, Veto Films.


You can also help by forwarding this appeal and sharing with friends.

Our newest writer for MUSLIMNESS Heba Saeed reviews the movie Paradise Now, directed by Hany Abu-Assad, about two young Palestinian men recruited to carry out a suicide bombing.
*Film spoilers.

Paradise Now leaves the viewer in a state of limbo, ironically. We're left with Said, one of the film's central characters, staring with his olive green eyes on the bus which he was once reluctant to board.

My brother didn't relish the film, "لم يستيسغه". He felt it was too surrealistic so as to arouse zeal and excitement, and too vague for the average viewer to understand the depth and history of a country like Palestine.

It did, however, draw my attention to one point. When one goes to Palestinian cinema, he or she usually has a transcendental expectation; one that diminishes the personal side of the story, if not utterly abjure it.

Many viewers, to the result of marketing, anticipate a Palestinian film to be full of rising and falling tones of patriotic soundtracks. The film must have a conspicuous chain of events and a plot that usually ends with the hero or heroine dead or injured; it isn't necessary to expose the daily habits of the characters. The roles in Paradise Now are appointed for one mission, so the film is expected to be a namby-mamby, strict and limited depiction of Palestinians as natives - not as real persons per se.

But the iconoclastic Paradise Now has visibly demolished all the laid-out, and long set-up traditions of Palestinian filmmaking. Not only that, but it belched out many a monotonous fable that may have pleased the ordinary audience with action scenes and dialogue, but would have made the production "just another film".

In Paradise Now we have serious scenes handled with shtick. Most pertinent of which is the scene of combatants recording their will before committing to a recruitment.

One combatant holds a gun, with a backdrop carrying the name of his affiliation and he's supposed to be delivering his last speech to his parents, to his enemies and all. In any other film, that scene would be very solemn, horrific, at least tear-spurring. But not in this one.

After the combatant gives his pre-death statement, they find the camera hasn't recorded anything so he has to reiterate his message and all the while his comrades are devouring sandwiches. The director obviously tried to cast different spots on the scene, to imbue the speech and view of someone who's going to perish by his own will with a nonchalant paltry of everyday life. It shouldn't be outright bodacious. It can be silly, too, blasé, regular and irregular alike. The combatants do not have to wear panoplies or masks; they can don tuxedos too, and shave their heads and appear good-looking and be mistaken as wedding attendants although in they film they're headed for a funeral.

The conscious part of Paradise Now cannot be overshot, too. The fighter Khaled is not an impregnable, impervious body of no appetite for life and no humane second-thoughts of death. He does think and rethink, and doubt the originality and the feasibility of what he's undertaking - a suicide mission.

Khaled's composed belief and his equanimity is shaken when he talks to his love interest, Suha. His enthusiasm is abated, and he starts to question his mission.

The notion ensconced under Suha's most meaningful speech attaches a terroristic substance to the fruit of Said and Khaled's mission. She thinks of resistance (a suicide attack) as another form of submission, acceding to the other by responding exactly the same way. Suha's Morrocan accent is sweet and musical; she is nonchalant and it fits her role as the questioning ego of the heroes.

Said, on the other hand, is still not convinced. So, we the viewers start to question his contumacy; is it inbred? Or is it, as Freud may postulate, a reflex reaction as to what his executed father did for working with the Israelis? He is definitely an affected man.

The father figure is held high by Said's mother who assures him that his role as an ameel, a collaborator, was only for their protection. A theme of treachery still lingers.

Khaled succeedes in presenting the typical zealot passions with the childish demeanour. He behaves in a kind of amiable spontaneity known only of madcaps like him. Said, on the other hand, hold more clarity within himself. He is discreet with others, low-pitched, and shows a little introvertness, unlike his friend.


Hany Abu-Assad did a good job making this film. He's worthy of his Golden Globe even if he doesn't believe it. And I believe Paradise Now is for now, not later.

Watch the trailer on YouTube {Paradise Now}.

By Heba Saeed, Palestinian Muslim living in Egypt

More movie love:
"To Catch A Dollar": Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus Banks On America
Movie: The Green Wave (Iran) 'Green is the color of hope, green is the color of Islam'
Seeing Islam In Avatar
Thread - The Women Of Afghanistan

Born to a Muslim family but raised as a Hindu, 'My Name Is Khan' actor Shahrukh Khan shares his childhood memories of Eid with family.

The video, in Hindi, has a brief transcript below.


Link to video {http://youtu.be/0CHmkxyg6s8}

"You can all come to mine, at 6 we'll pray! And we'll make a du`a for everyone's well being and freedom.

When I was younger we used to attend the Eid namaz (prayer, Farsi/Hindi). It's unfortunate that I haven't been able to attend the prayers here in Bombay, so I pray at home or with friends.

I have two strong memories for Eid; once after filming, we were in the Egyptian desert (singing a song!) and it was the Eid celebrations. Absolutely nobody was in the desert, for 100km it was deserted. There were just 50 of us and we gathered to pray Eid salah there.

I also remember when my father and uncle took me on a 2 wheeler, and our sandals would get stolen or lost. We used to go for the Eid festival in south Delhi, my father would take me, and that is really important because as I get older I hope to take my son."

Image {flickr}

More:
My Name Is Khan Movie Review
Imam Zaid Shakir's Eid Message
Is Eid the Muslim Christmas?

"I just wanted to make a place for my community to pray. Nothing more. Nothing less."

Sharif El-Gamal, the charismatic property developer from Brooklyn behind 'Park 51', gives his account for the first time in a film by Bafta award-winning director Dan Reed (Dispatches: Terror in Mumbai).

Reed's film untangles the hysteria, fury and politics surrounding the 'Mosque at Ground Zero'. His film explores how this proposed mosque and Islamic community centre, two blocks away from the site of the 9/11 attack in lower Manhattan, has thrown into sharp focus the tensions at the core of American democracy regarding the country's Muslim population.

With unique access to the major players in the project and the unfolding events, Inside The Mosque At Ground Zero recounts the press frenzy surrounding the plans. The vitriolic attacks on its high-profile spiritual leader Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf affect his vision for the centre. The film shares heartrending stories of some of the 9/11 families who oppose the building and reveals the driving force behind the mosque. In demand for the centre to be prevented or relocated, Evangelical Pastor Terry Jones gathered media attention to host a Quran burning day.

"I'm not a community activist," said Sharif El-Gamal, "I'm not a community leader... I'm not an Islam academic. I'm a New Yorker who is a real estate junkie. That's who I am." El-Gamal was brought up as a church-going Christian named Alexander, the son of a Polish Catholic and an Egyptian Muslim. After rediscovering Islam in his 30s, he purchased the Burlington Coat Factory in 2009, a disused building that was struck by the undercarriage of the second plane that hit Tower Two. His place was twofold - to make money from building condominiums on the site but also to provide a place of worship for the local Muslim population.

American community leader Imam Feisal propsed the entire site be transformed into a community centre that would act to counter extremism and give a platform to the American Muslim voice. When El-Gamal agreed, little did he know of the outrage he would ignite.


"What has my community done? We have done nothing. We have to get our identities back through our actions." - Sharif El-Gamal.

The opposition to the so-called 'mega mosque' caught the attention of Fox News which was at the vanguard of the US media storm. The controversy gathered political mementum and even President Obama felt compelled to take sides and endorse the mosque.


Reed follows El-Gamal as he battles to garner support and funds for the project he has dubbed 'Park 51'. Run from a back room in his property, the two staff members are students who feel underprepared to delivery El-Gamal's vision.

Of all his challenges, the most sensitive is the hostility towards the project from some of the 9/11 families. Reed films the highly-fraught and emotional meeting between El-Gamal and Lee Hanson who lost his son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter on the second plane.

But not all families oppose the mosque; Charlie Wolf lost his wife on the plane that hit the first tower. He says,

"You can't say that we can't have anybody, any Muslims near Ground Zero - that is a bunch of bull. Because as soon as you say they can't be two blocks, then where can they be? Three blocks, five blocks, ten blocks, half a mile, a mile, sixteen miles?"

Ten years on from the events that shaped a nation, this is the story of a derelict building that has become a lightening rod for America's struggles to reconcile its own psyche.

Transmission date: Monday 5th September at 8.00pm on Channel 4.

Journey to Mecca is an IMAX® dramatic and award winning documentary feature that tells the amazing story of Ibn Battuta, the greatest explorer of the Old World, following his first pilgrimage between 1325 and 1326 from Tangier to Mecca.

His perilous journey resonates with adventure while presenting an unforgettable picture of Islamic civilization during the 14th century, culminating with Ibn Battuta's first Hajj. The story is book-ended by a close-up look at the contemporary Hajj, a pilgrimage to Mecca that draws three million Muslims from around the world.


Link to video: {http://youtu.be/C9zee0ka-2Q}

After receiving great acclaim, Journey to Mecca has played in theatres around the globe including a grand opening in Birmingham, UK and Chicago.

Journey to Mecca is coming to New York on August 20th, 2011 and Melbourne on September 1st, 2011. {www.imaxmelbourne.com.au}

Interested in hosting Journey to Mecca in your city? Want to help give students a chance to see the film? Get in touch: e | jtm@skfilms.ca

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The Green Wave: in development for 2011

A film by Ali Samadi Ahadi.



Green is the color of hope. Green is the color of Islam. And Green was the symbol of recognition among the supporters of presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who became the symbolic figure of the Green Revolution in Iran last year. 

In the name of God, compassionate & merciful بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيمِ Peace be with you السلام عليكم

October 14th - 24th 2010

The Arab Film Festival has been active for over a decade, supporting Arab film makers and producers by showcasing their under-the-radar film work.

The short movies originate from Middle Eastern love and are directed towards plots that cover the entire film genre; stories from Bethlehem, wedding traditions, youth culture, music and struggles in Palestine are just a fragment of what viewers will taste. Comedy, tragedy, pain and history, the Arab Film Festival has it all.

Check out the film archive here.

For upcoming events click onto the Arab Film Festival.org.

In the name of God, compassionate & merciful بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيمِ Peace be with you السلام عليكم

Guest post by YMR from {Beyond the Horizon} blog.



"My name is Khan, and I am not a terrorist ".


For people who are unfamiliar, Khan is a common Muslim surname in the Indian subcontinent and among Indian-origin people around the world.


Seeing a Shahrukh Khan film for the first time, I was all fresh and open-minded about the movie, inclined to believe that I would be more objective and less likely to be biased in favor of the film out of love for SRK, the actor. And, I didn't return disappointed.


The theme of the movie, much to my liking, was the story of Rizwan Khan, with Asperger's syndrome who faces discrimination because of his Muslim name and strange ways due to his mild autism. This, combined with the funny irony - with SRK facing issues at the Newark airport immigration because his name was “Khan" in consonance with the story he was trying to film in the US, another Muslim actor being refused a visa by the US - and all the resulting hype surrounding the movie, meant I was waiting restlessly for the release of the movie, and saw its trailer more than 10 times.


The movie starts off wonderfully, depicting airport security scenes and the homeland security checking Khan, followed by flash back to old bollywood style strong emotions and music, depicting Rizwan Khan's childhood with his mother, who teaches him that there are only two kinds of people in the world - those who are good, and those who are bad. Khan remembers this lesson right into his adulthood and applies this principle in whatever he does. The scene shifts to San Francisco when he goes to the US to live with his brother. He is scared of noise, new people, new places, and all things yellow. He is very simpleminded and straightforward in his thoughts. He does not like hugs and can't understand unsaid emotions or express them. As far as acting as a mild autistic is concerned, SRK absolutely nails it.


The romance starts with Mandira soon, played by Kajol who does tend to get too loud and hyper during this part of the movie (!)


Post 9/11, Muslims in the US are subjected to discrimination, violence and hatred, and Rizwan Khan's family is no exception. Being stereotyped as terrorist, with great repercussions on his family, he embarks on a journey across America, trying to meet the president of the United States to tell him that his name is Khan, and he is not a terrorist. This is where some of the most powerful scenes are in the movie. Two of them are worth mentioning. When the bus stops over at an inn during a bus journey, Rizwan Khan realizes it’s time for Salaah (obligatory prayer) and readies himself to pray right there near the bus. Another Muslim co-passenger feels embarrassed about this, and tries to reason with him that one has to see the place and time before praying. Rizwan Khan says that Salaah is offered by intention, not by seeing anything else, and proceeds to pray in full public view. People are amused and some take pictures of a prostrating Khan even as the Muslim couple who were co-passengers get nervous and uncomfortable seeing this happen.


Another hard-hitting scene was when his brother's wife starts wearing the Hijaab in public again, declaring that Hijaab is not just a religious symbol, but her existential identity.


There are some silly scenes in the movie, especially the ones showing the floods in Georgia. The end of the movie came a cropper when everything is solved very conveniently in contrast to the realism director Karan Johar depicted for the most part earlier. But, the movie shows it is cool to be a Muslim and have a Muslim name, that it is cool to pray Salaah when it is time for it whatever be the scenario, that it is cool to wear the Hijaab and be proud of it. It also shows the world how innocent Muslims felt and experienced when the whole community was stereotyped due to actions of a few, and that Muslims aren't terrorists. It shows the excesses of the security apparatus in the country against innocent Muslims in their zeal to protect the country. The dislike for Bush as president and the excitement about
Obama is made quite apparent.


All of this, plus the stupendous performance by SRK showing asperger's syndrome make me recommend this as a must watch movie, but as a watch-only-once movie.


To Muxlim fans: watch My Name is Khan Trailer {here}



Peace & respect ★ www.Muslimness.com

Guest writer Umm Fatima, shares how she sees Muslim faith in the movie Avatar. *Film spoilers.

I must admit to having abandoned Hollywood blockbusters long ago, preferring a book, lecture or documentary to fill rare moments of leisure.

So I was rather skeptical when my husband coaxed me out of my Saturday routine to go see the much ballyhooed Avatar in 3-D at the IMAX theatre. It’s a short ride down the salt-chipped highway of my cold Canadian hometown.

Surrounded by pop, popcorn and poutine, I silently predicted I'd be bored out of my skull from a sci-fi movie that would doubtlessly become a marketing juggernaut, created to lull the masses into purchasing something or other, and providing yet one more opportunity for blokes to shell out money for fleeting entertainment instead of sending that cash to the suffering peoples of the world. Yeah, I can be a downer.

To my surprise, though, I experienced something akin to revelation.

Truths revealed in multiple layers, symbolizing all that I hold dear in this world - the uniting power of organized religion, the value of ancestry, the sacredness of the earth and the bonds of humanity.

In essence, I saw Islam.

It is an Islam that is little known, and perhaps even Director James Cameron didn't realize how close he has come to representing the values of my faith in a movie that has already broken box-office records with its huge draws.

It isn't the plot that leads me to this claim, though it valiantly speaks to the oppression of peoples around the world and the nobleness of struggling against injustice.

Quick breakdown of the plot: A corporation, backed by a government's military, is after the wealth of a planet called Pandora. They are trying out "soft" diplomacy to trick the locals – the Na’vi - to move off the area beneath which valuable resources are buried. The locals reject the schools and “blue jeans” offered by “the Sky people”- after all, what use do they have for knowledge that has little resonance to their own ways? Certainly, they don't need to be rescued from their own way of life. The army moves in to take what they want by force, destroying the planet’s breathtaking environment, and attempting to sever families and shared histories. Sound familiar?

Beyond the political overtones that could easily point to recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and in fact to most of the past colonial conquests that have decimated local cultures since time immemorial, religion is an important backdrop. It serves as the source of strength and guidance for a local community that is about to be wiped out by the marching orders of a secular, soul-less civilization. Echoes of pantheism reverberate here, but the Na’vi’s connectedness with all life forms, from animals, to plants to each other, represent the essence of a faith that recognizes the interconnectedness of all of creation – that we are indeed products of a one, unifying Creator who Has Decreed that we should be stewards of the earth.

“They didn’t need to die,” says a female Na’vi, Neytiri, after killing a creature that was about to claw apart Jack Sully, an ex-marine and avatar driver whose soul occupies a body that was artificially created through a combination of human and alien DNA. On his first visit to the planet, tasked with ingratiating himself with the local population to report back to the army, he is almost killed by wild beasts. When Neytiri sends arrows into the flesh of the creatures to stop their attack, she quickly uses a blade to slit their throats, as though she was in a halal slaughterhouse, murmuring a prayer and apology as the life rushes out of their bodies.

The Na’vi worship a spiritual force, the Eywa, which brings together the souls of their beings after death to the Tree of Souls. And while some of the spiritual practices are far removed from Islam, there are some remarkable similarities. The Na’vi face a central area of sacredness, to which they turn towards during prayer, and which unites them together in a brother and sisterhood just like the real-life House of God known as the Kaba, a cube-shaped structure in Mecca, built by the Prophet Abraham and which Muslims face in prayer five times a day.

When the Na’vi pray, their worship is synchronized, in the same powerful way Muslims move in unison when the call to prayer has reverberated in city streets and over country sides around the world (and ringing out from cell phones and computers where minarets are hard to come by).

The aliens also revere their ancestors and value their elderly. This constant awareness and maintenance of familial ties could have been taken right out of the Muslim texts where the Prophet Muhammad, may peace be upon him, constantly implored believers to maintain ties of kinship at all cost. A society without a history is cut off from its values and its sense of self.

Even when the two leading characters come together to “mate”, it is only after the young male alien has proven his adulthood, and earned the right to care for a family. Religion in the film, as most religions in real life, regards marriage as holy. We all know how far removed this concept is from many of today’s cultural messages about this sacred connection, where condoms are instead handed out willy-nilly in high schools, and girls are encouraged to define their worth through their sexual prowess.

When the characters do eventually come together, their union is made known to the community, as though they had married, and the event signifies a final decision, not some adventure that starts one night and eventually ends.

By the end of the movie, one of the scientists who had been studying the Na’vi and who deeply respects their spiritual beliefs, admits to feeling the presence of something greater. Even science must concede to the Supernatural.

How many people could relate all of these messages to faith? How many more would know that Islam offers all of this and more? Very few, I’d wager if my faith permitted gambling.

Even as the Na’vi valiantly decide to fight against the Sky People on “martyrdom” missions, one wonders whether it is ironic that we are cheering on the aliens, who are, in essence, fighting back just as the Iraqis, Palestinians and Afghanis consider themselves to be doing. Why does the world currently brand anyone who resists occupation as terrorists, while the aliens who are doing the exact same thing by defending their lands, their resources, their way of life, are quite obviously freedom fighters? This is not to defend the killing of innocent lives.

In fact, when the Sky People bring down Hometree in which the aliens live, one need only remember the Prophet’s beautiful advice to anyone in armed conflict to know that Islam holds life sacred, and war must remain as humane as possible:

“Do not kill an elderly person, nor a child, nor a woman, and do not exceed the bounds,” and “. . . Bring no harm to the trees, nor burn them with fire, especially those which are fruitful.” 

Terrorists are those who break the rules of engagement, no matter which side their on.

Perhaps it is the final juxtaposition of the female alien cradling her struggling human husband, released from his avatar, which sums up the key message of the movie. “I see you,” she says, a statement that carries much weight in a society where individuals actually see all living creatures as valuable and honour them with gentleness and respect, even if they look nothing like them. How different from a place where the spirit is neglected and every group eyes the other suspiciously. It isn’t much surprise when the main character decides to convert to this “real world”, leaving the world of heartless machinery and self-centered acquisition. This is where life represents peaceful co-existence with all that has been created, in reverence to the Force that created it.

That is Islam, though too few people will ever truly see it.

Read more by Umm Fatima on her blog {From Above the Acacia Tree}

"Merantau" is an Indonesian action drama feature released in April 2009. Written and directed by award winning director G.H. evans the film showcases Indonesia's ancient fighting techniques of Pencak Silat, while introducing the world to rising action star, Iko Uwais.

Official synopsis:
In Minangkabu, West Sumatera, Yuda a skilled practitioner of Silat Harimau is in the final preparations to begin his 'Merantau', a century's old rites-of-passage to be carried out by the community's young men that will see him leave the comforts of his idyllic farming village and make a name for himself in the bustling city of Jakarta, Indonesia.