QUICK AND DIRTY: LIVE FROM THE RED SEA

Fourteen-year-old Daye (Badr Mohamed) is doubly marginalised. He is part of the Nubian community, a riverside ethnic group that enjoys little recognition in Egypt. Plus he’s an albino. His mother (Sudanese actress Islam Mubarak) calls him a “ghost”. She notes that he’s barely discernible while wearing their local costume, which happens to be of a colour similar to his skin. He’s invisible, both literally and metaphorically. So instead he tries to make himself heard. Ironically, the first song he performs toys with his own outsiderness, from an inverted perspective. The lyrics go more of less like this: “I’m the dark-skinned one, and all the whites love me”. His potent voice enchant villagers and earns him an invite to participate in the popular television reality contest The Voice. Daye lends the expression “ghost singing” a whole new meaning!

Our protagonist dreams of encountering Mohammed Mounir, one of Egypt’s most famous singers and actors, an avuncular man aged 70. Despite having never met Daye, Mohammed becomes some sort of father figure. This fascination is undoubtedly aided by the fact that Daye’s father abandoned him as a small child – presumably because of his condition. Daye asks himself whether his family would would have been different if he was “normal”. The dream of a traditional nuclear family is paramount, and it is the desire for social acceptance that drives the narrative forward.

Daye’s condition is a reason for both consternation and celebration. His unusual lack of pigmentation makes him very vulnerable. He is bullied by children and teens of around his age, His mother asserts: “you can’t hide n the darkness because your face gleams like the moon“. But Daye also learns to shine in his own right, ultimately embracing his condition, and turning it into an asset. Daye’s beautiful sister Leila (Nubian actress Haneen Saeed) has a lot of faith in her younger sibling. She has a lot more confidence and melanin than her brother. In a way, they complement one another. His name means “light”, while her name means “night”. Their powerful bond twill hold the family together until the end of this 100-minute film. A friendly Mrs Sabreen (Saudi actress Aseel Omran) becomes a close associate, in a movie built structured around these four main characters.

These four people embark on a road trip to Cairo, where Daye hope to audition for the famous television show. What started out as a warm fable about racism and marginalisation morphs into a blundering adventure. The journey is not smooth. Their car is robbed, and they separate in a train station, only to be reunited a few scenes later. They finally reach the Egyptian capital, where they find redemption – if not quite in the way that they anticipated.

This well intentioned movie is guarantee to please Egyptian and Arab crowds. Saeed, Omran and Mubarak are relatively well-known faces in the region, and even Mounir himself makes a significant appearance in the end of the story. The story boasts puerile jokes and subtle twists and turns, catering for Arab sensibilities. The anti-racist commentary becomes entirely secondary, as the film moves it focus towards Daye’s family and their unquenchable desire for ascension. It is only through stardom that they can finally become fully functional, it seems.

While the good intentions are noticeable throughout the movie, so is the poor execution. The young lead Mohammad lacks charisma. He remains straight-faced during the entire film, His musical renditions are lukewarm at best. The cinematography overdoes the lighting and the fog machine, clumsily seeking to inject a touch of fantasy into a story mostly devoid of vim and vigour. The same applies to to the epic music score, designed to rescue the trite narrative from banality. The outcome is a niche movie, tailored to regional audiences. This film’s journey outside the Arab world promises to be far more arduous than its protagonist’s trip to Cairo.

The Tale of Daye‘s Damily just opened the 4th Red Sea International Film Festival. The event took place in Al-Balad, the historical centre of Jeddah. The extravagant red carpet ceremony saw illustrious celebrities from the Arab world, Hollywood and – to a lesser extent – other parts of the globe. They included Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Emily Blunt, Minnie Driver, Aamir Khan, Eva Longoria, Michelle Yeoh, Abdulmohsen Alnemr, Elham Ali, Mona Zaki, and others. The jury this year is headed by Spike Lee, who was also present. The American filmmaker explained that this is the third time that he visits Saudi Arabia, the first one being more than 30 years ago while shooting Malcolm X (992).