It is easy to judge. It is difficult to get people to look beyond their judgments. The documentary ‘Koran by Heart’ succeeds in doing so, at least for the 77-minute duration of the film.
The film brilliantly portrays the stories of three 10-year old Muslim children who travel to Cairo, Egypt to participate in the annual Qur’an recitation competition.
Rifdah, an intelligent, shy girl from the Maldives, Nabiollah a quiet, cheerful boy from Tajikistan who has a beautiful, serene voice and Djamil, a lively boy from Senegal; all three have memorized the 600 pages of the holy Muslim book without knowing its language, Arabic.
The film was premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York in April. The theatre was full.
When you first see Rifdha in her black veil, you wonder why a 10-year-old girl has to wear that in a warm place like the Maldives islands. You might think of women’s oppression, of free choice, of inequality and of the correlation between all this and Islam.
The magic of the film is that soon enough you forget about this. You connect with Rifdha and you join her on her journey to Cairo. You experience her nervousness as she her turn approaches and you smile at her joys when she finds out she has won second place.
The film was about more than the competition. Without directly addressing the issue, the film alludes to extremism. Nabiollah, the boy from Tajikistan, had to travel to attend school far from his home after the only school in his city was closed down by the government for fears of extremism.
Dr Salem, the man in charge of the competition, speaks against extremism in the name of Islam. He encourages the participation of Rifdha in the competition as one of the few female participants. Dr Salem notes that in Islam there is equality between men and women.
The film also addresses the captivating sound of the Qur’an recitation. An expert on the matter, Kristina Nelson, a musicologist, talks about the important effects and meaning of Qur’an recitation even to those who might not understand what they are saying. Nelson is the author of the book ‘The Art of Reciting the Qu’ran’.
And we see a live example of what Nelson is talking about when we hear Nabiollah reciting. The judges are so taken by his voice that they surround him after his recital to congratulate him and listen to more. Nabiolah ends up winning third place and is the only participants who is invited to recite Qur’an at the closing ceremony, which was attended by Egypt’s former president.
While telling the gripping stories of the three children, the documentary also keeps you anxious to know if they would win, hoping that they would. After making a mistake, Djamil’s tears start falling down his cheek. You feel his pain. He doesn’t make it to the final round but the judges honor him by having him recite at one of Egypt’s main mosques.
By indirectly correcting misconceptions, introducing a topic few people in the West know about (Qur’an recitation) and emotionally connecting the viewers to the characters in the film, Koran by Heart accomplishes a lot. But the biggest accomplishment on that sunny Sunday afternoon in New York, came after the film was over.
The film’s director, Greg Barker, walks up and surprises the audience: Rifdha and her parents are there.
In one scene in the film, Rifdha tells her mom that she wants to be an oceans explorer. Her father however, while supportive of her participation in the competition and of continuing her education, insists he wants her to be a housewife. It was devastating to the audience, me included, to hear of his plans for his brilliant daughter.
The father got at least a couple of questions on his opinion regarding the future of his daughter. He was shy and extremely nervous but courageous enough to tell a movie theatre full of New Yorkers that he wanted his daughter to be a housewife.
Barker quickly jumped in. He thanked the family for coming all the way to New York and told the audience this: “When we go around making films we don’t tell people how to live their lives. They don’t tell us how to live ours either.”
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