QUICK’N DIRTY: LIVE FROM THE RED SEA
The year is 2001. Kitti (Khairiah Nathmy) – which simply means “grandma” in the local Arabic dialect – travels from the ner native Taif to Mecca in order to fulfil the Islamic duty of Hajj. She is in the company of her teenage granddaughters Sarah (Raghad Bokhari) and Janna (Lamar Faden). Her daughter (the mother of the girls) passed away for reasons never revealed, and the father is only reachable via telephone. What should have been a relatively straightforward journey across the desert (the distance between the two destinations is a mere 100km) turns into a mission from hell after Sarah vanishes without leaving a trace.
Prior to her disappearance, Sarah was permanently attached to her headphones and visibly disconnected from others. This leads Sitti to the conclusion that her granddaughter eloped. So she gets off the coach and desperately seeks to locate Sarah’s boyfriend, taking the abiding Janna on her side. But the return trip isn’t as easy as she anticipated. The dirt roads pose multiple challenges for the two female characters. Grifter Ahmed (Nawaf Al-Dhufairy) offers them a ride on his decrepit old Toyota in exchange for “any amount of money” they can pay, in an apparent gesture of altruism.
The two women begin to doubt the kind stranger after they spot him selling tap water as Zamzam holy water to unsuspecting pilgrims. Ahmed defends his actions, describing himself as an “an outlaw who never committed a crime”. Highly principled Janna challenges him in front of his customers, thus infuriating the young man. And this isn’t the only time her good intentions land the adolescent in hot water: she frees an agonising camel only for the poor animal to be run over by the very first passing vehicle. Camels are repeatedly compared to women. Someone ascertains that they are the only two “creatures” that never forget suffering. A brief – and perhaps the film’s most powerful – scene reveals the contorted face of the shrieking camel. A disturbing image intended to represent the pains of female oppression.
Despite the turbulent journey and their notable differences, Ahmed and Janna bond. The story of the search for a missing person becomes a parable of friendship. Janna puts its bluntly, in defence of the disreputable male: “Sarah abandoned us, he didn’t”. Their relation is sealed by Bob Marley’s No Woman No Cry, whom Ahmed regards as a great “American” artist. He replaces the “woman” with “sister” and the “everything is gonna be alright” with lyrics in Arabic. Janna insist that her grandmother should not leave the man after he gets in trouble with the authorities.
The road trip takes another detour towards Duba, a port city in Eastern Saudi Arabia. The pictures of the desert are genuinely beautiful. The images of a little-known, impoverished side of Saudi Arabia – with poor houses and precarious roads – is also fascinating. The sight of the desert covered in snow is both surprising and soothing. Cinematographer M.I. Littin-Menz opts for bright and pale colours in order to convey a sense of peace and harmony. The visual balance is rarely challenged, except perhaps for Janna’s blood-stained underwear when she menstruates apparently for the first time (this is a taboo-breaking depiction in Saudi cinema; the orders of the Prophet are very clear: “It is harm, so keep away from women during menstruation“).
All in all, this is a film about abandonment, loyalty and reconnection. It is also a tale of female dignity, resilience and quiet rebellion, directed by a woman. At that time, Saudi women could not go anywhere of their own volition, let alone with a male to whom they are not related. Even a visit to the local cemetery was a non-go for those of the “weaker sex”. Women couldn’t even drive until 2018 (let alone make films). While these filmic representations may not seem particularly revolutionary in the West, they signal some seismic changes in the Middle Eastern nation. Hijra caters for Arab sensibilities while remaining universal enough to be appreciated anywhere on the globe.
Hijra just premiered in the 5th Red Sea International Film Festival.
