Film Preview
Women sewing in
the Siwa Oasis, Egypt. Photos courtesy of Tamalyn Dallal
Who They Really Are
A Miami Filmmaker Delves Deep Into
Islam
“This film is about listening, not telling the people in Islamic
countries what they need.”
By Rayme Samuels
Award-winning belly
dancer, published author, CD producer, filmmaker and world traveler
Tamalyn Dallal has created her contemporary cinematic masterpiece
after a year-long trek with only lofty visions and a hand-held
camcorder as companions. The premise: To spend 40 days in an Islamic
country and speak to the people, learn what they desire and see how
they really live. The outcome:
40 Days and 1001 Nights,
a beautifully executed documentary that places audiences straight in
the heart of Muslim culture in
Indonesia, the Siwa Oasis of Egypt,
Zanzibar, Jordan and Xinjiang Province in northwest China.
“This film is about
listening, not telling the people in Islamic countries what they
need,” Dallal says passionately. The subject matter, she continues,
“is infinitely more fascinating than the same old blood and horror
stories that get regurgitated into our consciousness every day.”
The documentary
instead transports viewers into scenes from everyday life that
demonstrate the food, music, dances, traditional medicines and
spiritual practices of the regions.
Follow the
filmmaker through the post-tsunami streets of Banda Aceh, Indonesia.
Explore a marketplace in the streets of Jordan’s capital city. Be
captivated by dancing at a colorful wedding in Zanzibar. Enter salt
and earth houses built in a Saharan oasis. Wander down the Silk Road
in a multilingual province in China.
Meanwhile sporadic
close-up shots showing advertisements for the omnipresent Coca-Cola
remind viewers the West is hardly invisible in the far corners of
the world.
Dallal, who has run
a nonprofit belly dance company and studio called the Mid-East Dance
Exchange in Miami Beach for many years, took a sabbatical to produce
the film.
The Travel Network
could not have done a better job of displaying the humanity of
people in every nation struggling to retain their religious and
cultural traditions.
And luckily for us,
Dallal has set her surroundings to music, fascinatingly catchy local
beats that accompany each country’s vignette. Perhaps one of the
most poignant moments of the film occurs in Zanzibar as the
world-renowned Ikhwani Safaa Musical Club rehearses in a bustling
town hall. Poised and focused musicians comprise this exclusive band
often referred to as “Africa’s Buena Vista Social Club,” known for
creating a mesmerizing combination of African and Arabic rhythms. A
prolific Dallal took the opportunity to also record and produce a
soundtrack to the film showcasing the talent of these musical
masters.
She explains that
the “40 days” of the film’s title signifies an auspicious amount of
time in both Islam and the Old Testament. An Arabic proverb says,
“If you stay among a people 40 days, either you affect them or they
affect you.” For this filmmaker, 40 days is the period of time in
which she was able to begin to lose her identity, become more like
her surroundings and produce this candid work of art.
40 Days and 1001 Nights unspools at 8 and 10 p.m.
Saturday, Jan. 13, at the Miami Beach Cinematheque, 512 Española
Way, Miami Beach.
Copies of Dallal’s tell-all book of the same title also
will be available for purchase. Screening tickets are $15 in
advance, $18 at the door.
Call 305-673-4567 or visit
www.tamalyndallal.com.
