Controversial Mauritanian film examines young man's path to extremism

2009-11-06

Some Muslim clerics and scholars have roundly condemned the most lauded film at Mauritania's recent SENAF festival. The young producer discusses the reasons for the furor.

Interview and photos by Mohamed Yahya Ould Abdel Wedoud for Magharebia in Nouakchott – 06/11/09

Mauritanian producer Mohamed Ould Idoumou explains the backlash over new movie "My Friend Who Disappeared".

The new Mauritanian movie "My Friend Who Disappeared", winner of the 2009 Best Picture Award at SENAF last month, is prompting a contentious national debate. Critics accuse the Maison des Cineastes (House of Filmmakers) of apostasy and interpret the film as an insult to religious education and to Muslims, while fans and film experts see it as a way to understand the root causes of terrorism.

Festival organiser and acclaimed director Mohamed Ould Idoumou oversaw production of the controversial film. Magharebia spoke with him in Nouakchott about what the movie aimed to achieve and why it has prompted such controversy.

Magharebia: What is the basic premise of "My Friend Who Disappeared"?

Mohamed Ould Idoumou: "My Friend Who Disappeared" is a film directed by young filmmaker Zein Al Abidin Ould Al Moukhtar. The movie is about his personal journey in search of a friend who disappeared. They were friends in high school, and suddenly he vanished, leaving no clue as to how or why he disappeared. Through the movie, and with the aid of interviews with the family and schoolmates of the missing friend, the filmmaker endeavours to find answers to those questions and track his friend down.

The friend who disappeared, it turns out, decided to leave his Mauritanian secondary school for a religious school. After some time, he came back looking different and with a new perspective on life. He stayed among his friends for four years, only to vanish again for ten whole years. The film poses the question, where did the friend go? Shall we see him one day in news reports or read about him through headlines as a suicide bomber? This is the essence of the movie.

Magharebia: Can the movie contribute to our understanding of the phenomenon of terrorism?

Idoumou: I think the movie poses some important questions, which makes it a good movie, in my opinion, from a cinematic, critical and artistic point of view. I think this is a full-fledged documentary that manages to pose some significant questions and raise debate about the phenomenon. Some interpreted the movie as insulting to religious schools, to religious education and to Muslims. Others saw it as a means of tracking the phenomenon down to its roots.

If the young man who disappears and who later reappears as a terrorist attended a religious school, it does not necessarily mean that the latter is a trigger for aberrance. However, that is the reality here; the movie is tracking down a man who started off from one point and moved on to another.

I also think the movie seeks to raise some implicit questions, such as: What triggers youth to join Salafist groups? Is it the surrounding reality and the morbid perspective? The movie did not feature Islam as a problem. There are, however, very narrow-minded mentalities that, I won’t say, have nothing to do with Islam, but that focus on certain aspects in Islam, place them out of context and uphold them as a motive for a certain action or line of thought. I believe that if the movie is fruitfully discussed and if it is shown on more than one occasion, it might give rise to a debate which may help solve the problem or arrive at a correct understanding of Islam on the one hand, and rigid Salafi thinking on the other.

Magharebia: How might the movie help a simple citizen discern the motives that drive youth to be religiously aberrant?

Idoumou: I think the phrase "a simple citizen" needs to be underlined in red. There are Muslims who are fully aware of the negative impact of that rigid thinking, which is incontestable, and there is also the layman citizen in the West, who only knows about Islam through the international media. That citizen is our target audience, I believe.

We need to show the other side of Islam and Muslims. Islam is not about terrorist attacks. It is not about bombings and bloodshed. Islam is not about war, it is about peace. This is how the movie should be interpreted and this is the message it delivers to westerners, in general, be they Muslims, Christians, Buddhists or even people with no creed. Man is man, he is bound to be influenced by preconceptions. However, the human mind is always subject to modification and change. This is what the movie tries to suggest.

The movie tried to discuss terrorism from a simple perspective, Idoumou says. "I think it succeeded."

Magharebia: Did you encounter any difficulties making this movie?

Idoumou: The movie seeks to discuss a huge problem and I think it managed to, to a certain extent. It tried to discuss terrorism from a simple perspective.

The difficulties we ran into stem from the topic itself: Is his mother prepared to talk? How does she see her son? Does she see him as a terrorist? Would she consider him a martyr if he died? The family was not ready to talk and was eager to keep the whole thing under wraps. The director, however, managed to convince one of the missing person's family to talk. His friends were sorry that he was gone and did not know when or how they were going to see him again or whether they would get to see him the way he used to or whether they would see him in a coffin.

The Maison des Cineastes is taking a risk producing that kind of movie at such a critical juncture, especially given that Mauritanian society may interpret things out of context. For instance, some imams tackled the topic of the movie during a Friday sermon. The imam of Maghreb mosque (one of the biggest mosques in the capital Nouakchott) only heard about the movie and formed some opinion, then set out to criticise the festival and the movie. I am confident that he never even watched the movie. He said that there are "communists" – and I have no idea where he got that from – "who are out to disfigure Islam". The truth is, as is evident in the movie, we are trying to explain things to the Other. The imam added, "Young people of that kind ought to be stopped and their licence should be annulled."

We ran into several such harassments, but in the end, the movie was released and won the first prize. All we need to do in arts is to ask a few questions and raise the dust, as they say.

Magharebia: In the end what are your expectations regarding the future of that movie?

Idoumou: I think the movie was produced so as to be a leap on the level of the Mauritanian cinema, and on the level of youth’s thoughts and the topics they discuss. In the past, we used to listen to experts, wearing neckties, talk about terrorism. Documentary cinema, however, communicates with the people.

This is the strength of the movie. It took a step past the intellects and went out to the street, to discuss the topic from a human perspective. I expect that movie to win prizes in several other festivals.