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September 19, 2008
Different life choices
Festival includes Jewish and Israel-related movies.
RON FRIEDMAN
If you've got time between holiday shopping and synagogue services, make an effort to go to one of the films being shown at the 27th annual Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF). Starting Sept. 25, the festival will feature 332 films from 60 countries at 575 screenings over 16 days. Among them are several with a Jewish connection.
Momma's Man is a semi autobiographical film by American screenwriter/director Azazel Jacobs (The GoodTimesKid). The story revolves around Mikey (Matt Boren), a thirtysomthing-year-old who, after a weekend visit at his parents' house in New York, can't bring himself to return home to his wife and baby. What starts off with white lies about cancelled flights and mistaken bookings, soon develops into a type of mental paralysis that won't allow him to step out of his parents' apartment. His behavior, inexplicable to his wife and deeply concerning to his aging parents, becomes weirder as the movie unfolds. Mikey withdraws deeper into himself and spends hours and days in the small alcove of the bedroom that he grew up in, immersing himself in childhood memorabilia.
The story progresses, ever so slowly, and viewers may start to feel frustrated by the main character's inability to act resolutely. For a large part of the movie, viewers anxiously wait for a development that, unfortunately, fails to satisfy.
Jacobs put a lot of himself into this film. The majority of it was shot inside the small Tribeca apartment where Jacobs grew up and, to add to the autobiographical nature of the movie, the actors who play Mikey's parents are actually Jacobs' parents themselves.
Despite the intimacy you might expect from such a close-to-home production, the familial bond doesn't come across on screen. Both parents have difficulties communicating with their cooped up son and the small apartment feels too crowded even for those watching the movie.
Momma's Man is about a person unable to choose between boyhood and manhood; long after nature already made the choice for him. It screens Thursday, Sept. 25, 10 p.m., and Friday, Sept. 26, 11 a.m., at the Empire Granville 7 Theatre. Go to www.viff.org for details and tickets.
A Road to Mecca: The Journey of Mohammad Asad is a documentary about the life and experiences of Muslim scholar, journalist and activist Mohammad Asad. Born as Leopold Weiss, an Austrian Jew, Asad converted to Islam in the 1920s after travelling across the Middle East and the Arab Peninsula. The film, by Austrian director Georg Misch, takes viewers on a journey in Asad's footsteps, from the outskirts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to Israel, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and New York. The places he lived and visited are examined and, at the same time, a complex portrait of Islam unfolds.
Along the journey, Asad's thoughts, taken from passages from his widely read books, are juxtaposed with current problems between East and West. The characters we meet along the way provide a rich diversity of opinions dealing with issues like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, internal rifts in Islam and the global war on terror.
While the filmmakers try to present him as a prominent figure in the world of Islamic scholarship, it is fairly clear that not many people know who Asad was. Upon landing at the airport in Mecca, the crew tries to find somebody who can comment on Asad's popularity - in the end, the authorities, eager to help the foreign film crew, resort to paging anybody in the airport who had something to say about him. Even in Pakistan, where he played an important role in planning the independent Muslim state, later even becoming its representative to the United Nations, few people were familiar with his legacy. A meeting of "Asadians," as his followers are known, pulled in only five people.
The film itself is a good choice for anyone interested in learning about Islam and about a man whose love for that religion led him to an exotic and interesting life.
A Road to Mecca: The Journey of Mohammad Asad screens Sunday, Sept. 28, 9:15 p.m., at the Empire Granville 7 Theatre and Thursday, Oct. 2, 10:45 a.m., at Pacific Cinémathèque. Go to www.viff.org for details and tickets.
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