QUICK’N DIRTY: LIVE FROM THE RED SEA

The film begins in wintry Sweden. The snow-covered landscape and the sharp-cold weather are in stark contrast to the scorching-hot desert mountains of Saudi Arabia, where Mecca is situated (and which we see later in the film). Extensive drone shots help to emphasise the vastness and also the contrast between the two places. The objective is to highlight the breadth and the universality of Islam.

Next we meet a keffyeh-clad young man walking the streets of a Swedish town. He explains that his parents’ separation took a big toll on his mental health, and that he decided to do this Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca) in order to heal the open spiritual wounds. His father embarks on the journey with him. Next we meet families in five other parts of world: Uganda, Kenya, and three UK locations (Birmingham, Rainham and Bromley-upon-Bow). What all these people have in common is that they have decided to visit Mecca – the Prophet’s birthplace and also Islam’s holiest site – in order to achieve redemption or absolution. Their challenges are very diverse: divorce, university exams, pregnancy, drugs and a potential life of criminality. They are convinced that such journey will change their life forever.

Hajj in the final of the five pillars of Islam, the documentary tells us. We see these people confess their sins at the Arafat (the first pillar of the Hajj) and visit different parts of Mecca (including the the Black Stone of the Kaaba inside the Sacred Mosque). Breathtaking drone shots of Mecca reveal a monumental city, where modern buildings blend smoothly with the landscape. The sight of the Royal Clock Tower is particularly impressive. The photography is genuinely otherworldly: Mecca looks like a peaceful and harmonious utopia detached from earth. Ward and his crew had privileged access to the various parts of the city and the skies above. Presumably, this makes Ward a practising Muslim. That’s because non-believers are not allowed to enter the Holy City (Spike Lee himself had to hire ad doc cinematographers and could not attend the location shootings of Malcolm X, in 1992).

While visually accomplished, the same cannot be said about other aspects of Human Tide. The personal stories are not investigated in enough detail. The film repeatedly proposes Hajj as the panacea, without going into the root causes of the physical and mental challenges that these people are experiencing. An invasive and irritating Discovery Channel-like music score desperately seeks to infuse the story with divine and the ethereal flavours. Most crucially, the films lacks spontaneity. The director sacrifices humanism for the sake of a publicity (this Saudi film was partly funded by the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah).

Human Tide strives to be universal, yet it fails on its mission. The film will not resonate amongst non-Muslims, and it doesn’t even represent global diversity of Islam: there are no pilgrims from the Americas, Asia (incidentally,. Indonesia has the largest Muslim population on this planet) or even the Arab world. The choice to have literally half of the characters coming from the UK and the entire film spoken in English is a questionable one.

A title card explains that 1.5 million Muslims undertake Hajj every year. This is a strangely low figure, given that there are 1.8 billion Muslims in the world. This means that the overwhelming majority of world Muslims will never fulfil their commitment. The movie never addresses this disconnect. Instead, it shuns criticism in favour of sheer religious celebration.

Upon returning to the UK, one of the characters claims that the positive outlook in life and the learnings that he obtained through his pilgrimage can help to dispel the negative image that many people have of Muslims. That is a very fair point, as many countries in the West grapple with toxic and rampant Islamophobia. It’s a pity that Human Tide does not help to achieve this. There are more subtle and effective ways of getting into the hearts and he minds of Muslims and non-believers alike.

Human Tide just premiered in the 5th Red Sea International Film Festival. This is a fitting place for the event to take place, as Jeddah is located just 70km from Mecca, and it is widely considered as its principal gateway.