Cinema
The Borders
الحدود
Duraid Lahham · 1984
Synopsis
Abd al-Wadud, a driver who travels the road between two neighbouring countries, Gharbistan in the west and Sharqistan in the east, loses his papers and his passport in the zone that separates their border posts. He can neither go home nor enter the other country, and the officials on both sides refuse to let him through. Forced to camp on the very line, he opens a café there to make a living, meets all kinds of travellers and marries a shepherdess.
Context
Muhammad al-Maghut and the director write the screenplay together for the state film organisation, and the director himself plays the lead, opposite Raghda, Rashid Assaf, Hani al-Rumani and Omar Hajjo, with music by Samir Hilmi. The film mocks the speeches about Arab unity and cooperation through the absurd situation of a man whom two neighbouring states equally refuse. It is shown at Carthage, and the plan for a sequel with the Egyptian Adel Imam comes to nothing.
Who it is for
A comedy in Arabic, in the Syrian dialect, easy to follow; the political satire remains readable without knowing the context.
Prizes and reception
It stayed in cinemas for a year; ranked seventy-fifth of the one hundred best Arab films in a survey of critics at the Dubai festival in 2013.