Poverty, Anti-Western Beliefs, and the Bloody Communist Movement of Jakarta: Indonesia in the 20th Century

by Stefanie Malandrino

POL128 - Ryerson University

In the 20^th century, Indonesia was most definitely among an economic inflation and political catastrophe which contributed to the poverty and genocide it presumed among it all. The events of the Holocaust, the World Wars, and the Great Depression seem to have overshadowed the harsh truths that occurred in Indonesia during the final moments of President Sukarno of Indonesia’s ruling. These events do not make the struggles endured by Indonesia less real and tragic than they were. The film The Year of Living Dangerously, written by Peter Weir and David Williamson, whom also directed the film, provides its audience with the truth behind the events that took place in this third world country in 1965. This is done through the story of Guy Hamilton, an Australian journalist who is a foreign correspondent in Jakarta, Indonesia, and his new friend Billy Kwan, a morally righteous Eurasian videographer. Along the way, the film depicts raw images of poverty at the time, the realness of anti-western beliefs, and the chaos that was resurrected by the communist movement. Each of these themes contribute to the depiction of the political and economic downfalls of the time that seem to be overlooked in history. Through this film, viewers can get deep within the realities of Indonesian life of 1965, and it ultimately, provides the audience with emotions of sympathy and empathy, while promoting the same sense of anxiety that is felt by the characters. The storyline of The Year of Living Dangerously efficaciously portrays themes of poverty, a sense of chaos, and political menace, while the audience is indulged in the provoking imagery, narrative, and characters that convey them. 

In order to fully understand the political concepts and issues presented through the film The Year of Living Dangerously, one must be aware of the historical events of the time that took place in Indonesia, specifically in Jakarta. President Sukarno was the existing president of Indonesia from 1949-1966, where he was the leader of the Indonesian independence movement and was the creator of the Guided Democracy system (Sukarno, Encyclopedia Britannica). Sukarno’s journey through presidency began as promising and active, but was later on spiralling down into a disaster that would soon impact life in Indonesia immensely. Sukarno established himself, his governance, his riches in the splendid palace of the Dutch governors-general in Jakarta, where he proceeded to preside elegantly over a sight that was at once diverting and disturbing (Sukarno, Encyclopedia Britannica). In other words, the president created a world separate from the realities of slum in his country and turned a blind eye to the issues before him. In late 1956, Sukarno “dismantled parliamentary democracy and destroyed free enterprise”, where the economy was now in favour of communism, rather than capitalism (Sukarno, Encyclopedia Britannica). The Indonesian economy then submerged in turmoil, thus the heavy depiction of poverty within The Year of Living Dangerously. Nonetheless, Sukarno remained the voice of the people, and therefore, his opinions were the opinions Indonesian citizens as well. At the time, Westerners were viewed as “the enemies,” as it is mainly at the hands of Dutch which caused Indonesia its never-ending struggle for independence, as they had “dissolved themselves into a unitary republic of Indonesia,” where Indonesia was essentially controlled by Netherlands (Taylor, 336). At the time, Sukarno suggested that “Western concepts of parliamentary democracy in Indonesia had led to recurring crises, because of the weakness of government authority and the vehemence of political opposition”, suggested a system “in harmony with the soul of Indonesian people” (Van der Kreof, 113). This is directly related to the representation of how the Indonesian characters of the film acted toward European characters much like Guy Hamilton. The chaos that is conveyed within The Year of Living Dangerously provides the audience with insight on the period of an attempted coup in Indonesian history, and the beginning of an Indonesian genocide. On September 30, 1965, the Indonesian National Armed Forces attempted to overthrow the communist government, as a result of “fear of the rise of anti-communist factions, both inside the military and the country as a whole” (Sukarno, Encyclopedia Britannica). This can be seen within the last few minutes of the film, and clearly depicts the beginning of a significant, and bloody, event which took place in Indonesian history. It is clear that themes of poverty, anti-west movements, and the insurrection caused by communist efforts are depicted within this film, and demonstrate how The Year of Living Dangerously demonstrates the political society of Indonesia. 

Within the film The Year of Living Dangerously, the depiction of poverty relates to a distinct gap between the living conditions of Indonesia’s civilians and the elite government officials. Within the first few minutes of the film, Indonesian slums are spread across the screen. Images of people walking the streets with their rib-cages prominently submerged from their bodies are displayed, while each person is barely clothed and covered in dirt and debris. It is clear that poverty is a major issue in Jakarta, and the economy is definitely sunken. Billy Kwan explains Jakarta as “the city of fear” where all civilians live in fear of death by starvation or disease. The narrative of the film contributes to the melodramatic images of poverty and appeal to the emotion of the audience, where Billy explains the situation of poverty in one line: “the real Jakarta is scrounging for another handful of rice just to keep them alive for another day.” Ironically, a scene toward the middle of the movie displays a frenzy of famished people as a bag of rice, among many others stacked in a truck, is split open. As the rice spills out and the civilians rush to get their share, a little Indonesia girl grabs the rice from the sandy ground and shoves handfuls directly into her mouth. The use of this character and structure of ironic relations that are used appeals to the audience’s emotion, where viewers are sympathetic, and possibly empathetic.

Weir effectively uses characters to depict the issue of the disadvantaged citizens, where Billy’s moral righteousness takes over and allows him to become committed to helping a needy mother and her young sick son, who, he states: “both drink and bathe from a canal that carries disease.” This small family alone provides the viewer with insight on the poverty occurring at the time, and helps the audience consider how difficult it must have been to live in Indonesia during the time of an economic depression. The images of a third world country are clearly conveyed throughout the plot of The Year of Living Dangerously, and Weir is effective in continuously portraying the hardships of poverty through narrative and characters.

In relations to the political aspects of this film, it is definitely tacitly conveyed that the economic downfall of Indonesia is a result of Sukarno and his presidency. The issues of poverty definitely give the reader a message of how the government can put such strain on its people in times of crisis. The film points to problems in the political world where there is a gap between the lavish lifestyle of higher political powers and the disadvantaged one of the civilians. Weir subtly ties this issue into the film, where scenes of poverty are contrasted with scenes of luxury. One scene depicts women in a cemetery who fall back on prostitution to make ends meet and survive, then jumps to the privileged Caucasian journalists, who stay in a high end resort laying by a pool, who pay these prostitutes “just one dollar to spend the night.”

 

It can also be understood by the audience, without the need of a statement, that the economic turmoil that contributes to the poverty that is being seen is a domino effect of Sukarno and his government. Billy is outraged when the child of the family he has supported dies of malnutrition and disease as a result that Sukarno has betrayed the revolution which put him in power. Upon his one-man protest which speaks the truth of the matter, security personnel murder Billy, and use suicide as a ruse to cover it up. This goes without saying that instead of Sukarno inspiring the “necessary coherent programs of organization, rehabilitation, and development” for the poverty issues surrounding him, the president focused his attention on “nightly soirees of receptions, banquets, music, dancing, movies, and wayang” (Sukarno, Encyclopedia Britannica). Poverty, a separation of class, and oppression of the people as a result of political downfall are all topics of concern that clearly displayed through the film.

The film The Year of Living Dangerously, provides the audience with a sense of consistent unease felt by Westerners within the Indonesian society of that time in the 20^th century. The film helps readers understand what it is like to be an outsider in a place country of unfamiliar culture and language, and how it is to cope with being a stranger in a country that does not see you as their ally. Within the first few minutes of the film, Guy is seen getting his bags checked suspiciously by Indonesian officials at the airport. This is later followed by a quote made by Billy to Guy where he states: “You're an enemy here Hamilton, like all Westerners. President Sukarno tells the West to go to hell. And today, Sukarno is the voice of the Third World.” At the same time, later in the film, Jill feels anxious with her knowledge that a ship left with arms for the PKI, where she states: “If the PKI take over, they will slaughter every European in Jakarta.” This information really lets the audience know how the West was perceived by this third-world country. The use of this narrative allows the audience to feel a sort of nervousness for Hamilton, as he is vulnerable in his surroundings. It also could create a sense of empathy, where viewers may understand what it is like to feel lost in a new place and feel uninvited or much like an outsider. Weir allows the audience to gain insight on the dangers of the Westerners meddling in third world countries.

At the same time, this sense of unease is carried with the civilians as well, where the film shows how Jakarta is filled with chaos as the Sukarno gives power to the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI). One scene conveys such chaos, as Guy and Billy drive into the city but are trapped by a large protest with hundreds of Indonesians bearing signs reading “Crush every form of imperialism.” The scene is almost claustrophobic and gives readers a feeling of anxiety. I feel as though this scene of chaos and feeling of madness can be relatable to many people who have experience war and corruption in their government. This scene displays tensions between the Indonesian people and the government, and the Indonesian people and the Westerners.  This theme of unease and chaos is an overtly political way of displaying the experience of all people of Indonesia, regardless of race, religion, or ethnicity, in 1965 during the last few moments of Sukarno’s ruling. It makes the audience think of how one minute there is peace and normality within a place, and the next minute, the country is breaking out into riots and violent protests. This helps the audience relate to their own experiences of outrage, and really gives insight of how much tension was in the air due to politics during this time. The film The Year of Living Dangerously, successful shows themes of anti-western beliefs in Indonesia during the mid 20^th century, and confronts the audience with the reality of uncertainty and menace, along with a sense of unease in developing countries, regardless of race or religion.

The rebellion caused by the communist movement is a major political issue that is addressed within the film. In The Year of Living Dangerously, the last few moments of the film display the reality of communist executions by the military, and provide the audience with horrifying pictures of alleged communists being viciously shot to death. The structure and narrative of the film helped contribute to this idea of a bloody revolution that is to come, as Guy and his driver are incredibly nervous when approaching the military correspondents when trying to pass by them in their car. This scene later in the film depicts the fear that the government, or perhaps the anti-government, is capable of instilling upon its people. In a tacitly way, Weir addresses the political problems of that day in Indonesia, where the PKI was potentially to be thrown over. With the support of Sukarno and the air force, the Communist party gained increasing influence at the expense of the army, ensuring the army's hatred (Ricklefs, 272–279). By late 1965, the army was divided between a left-wing group allied with the PKI, and a right-wing group that was being “courted by the United States” (Ricklefs, 282). Although this political information was not provided in the film, the audience is still able to identify that chaos is about to erupt through the narrative of the characters. Guy refers to such disorder as the “military declaring Marshall law” which gives the audience a sense of disruption that is about to occur. The scene at the end of the film where Guy is attacked by an Indonesian Military Correspondent, where he is aggressively jabbed in the eye with a gun, ultimately sets the bar for the future of Indonesia, and gives the audience a sense of how the insurrection caused by the communist party led to a genocide. Although it is not shown, it can be inferred that the events that took place in reaction to this rebellion were no more merciful than the killings that were shown in the film. This political issue is demonstrated throughout the film but is definitely made more significant toward the ending, and although the final scene romantically depicts Guy and Jill meeting on the plane as they board, the thoughts are still with Indonesia as they leave the country behind in its turmoil.

The Year of Living Dangerously successfully uses imagery, narrative, and dimensional characters to convey active themes of poverty, lack of order, and political menace that was very much alive in Indonesia during the mid 20^th century. Weir effectively displays the Indonesian culture through this picture, even though the majority of it was filmed in the Philippines, and clearly provides the audience with a high quality, educational, and emotion provoking film. The Year of Living Dangerously leaves its viewers with a food for thought and entices one to feel thankful for their blessings, while also opening their eyes to harsh realities of politics that impact innocent people during that time, and that perhaps continues even in the 21^st century.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Hanna, Willard A. "Sukarno." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica.

<https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sukarno>.

Kroef, Justus M. Van Der. ""Guided Democracy" in Indonesia." Far Eastern Survey: Institute of

Asian Studies 26.8 (1957): p, 113.

Ricklefs, Merle C. "A History of Modern Indonesia since C. 1200." Stanford University Press 3

(1993): 272-82. Web.

Taylor, Jean Gelman. "Indonesia: Peoples and Histories." Foreign Affairs: Yale University Press

82.5 (2003): p, 336.

The Year of Living Dangerously. Written/Directed by Peter Weir, David Williamson. 1982. USA.

United International Pictures, MGM/UA Entertainment Company.

Budapest by Walter Carvalho and based on Chico Buarque’s novel.

Budapest (Brazil/Portugal/Hungary, 2009) Directed by Walter Carvalho

Based on Chico Buarque’s novel

Introduced by José Abreu Ferreira

Sessional Instructor, Department of Spanish & Portuguese

University of Toronto

Luso-Brazilian Film Screenings: Literature & Cinema

PLACE: Media Commons Theatre (Robarts Library, 3rd Floor)

DATE: Monday, March 31, 2014

TIME: 6:30pm to 9:30pm

Exile is a recurrent theme in Buarque's life and work. Budapest is the story of José Costa, a writer who finds himself stranded in the Hungarian capital when a bomb scare grounds his plane. Written in Buarque's deceptively spare prose, the book is extraordinary for its observations on language, foreignness and love. 'It should be against the law to mock someone who tries his luck in a foreign language,' begins Costa's journey in a strange land. He embarks upon an affair with a woman who mocks him for his poor sentence construction in a language famously described as the devil's tongue. With thoughts of Rio never far from Costa's mind, the story meanders like the unfolding of consciousness.

What emerges is a humorous and philosophical take on the experience of being abroad. The freedom of seeing the world through new eyes, like a child, is matched by the frustration of being faced with an impenetrable wall of sound. Can anyone escape their mother tongue any more than they can shake their past? The theme came back to haunt Buarque as he worked alongside the translator responsible for the English version of Budapest . He discovered that some things had to be rewritten. 'They did not translate,' he says. (Jemima Hunt)

It's a story about language and the difficulties involved in living in a place where a language utterly incomprehensible to you is spoken. Buarque's the real deal, hilarious and innovative and deftly profound. The premise of the novel is ridiculous – a Brazilian ghost writer completes his self-effacement by disappearing into Budapest – but Buarque sells it so well that, by the end, your own existence feels equally ridiculous.”

It's a great novel, full of fantasy, absurd and bizarre situations, tragic humour.
Buarque delights in ambiguity, in dissolving the borders between people, places and, indeed, paragraphs. He's poetic, romantic, yet often frustrating. At times, the side-streets become the thoroughfares, resulting in an intriguing but exhausting journey.  The self-referential plot is folded several layers thick. It’s impossible not to appreciate Buarque’s craftsmanship and self-centered.

Budapest's character (Leonardo Medeiros) and author (Chico Buarque) meeting in the film

AUTHOR

Chico Buarque has helped define Brazilian culture for the past four decades. In Brazil, he is nothing short of a national treasure. And as the author of Estorvo, Benjamin, Budapest, and Leite Derramado, Buarque has sold nearly half a million copies. His father, Sergio Buarque de Hollanda was then one of Brazil's leading critics and historians. Buarque originally made his name as a musician - albeit one with a strong sense of history. Starting out composing songs in the Sixties, he went on to write hundreds of them. His gift as a social commentator was to inhabit the lives of Brazil's disenfranchised. He sang about street kids, a prostitute given the chance to save the world. 'Construcao', a surrealist fantasy about a construction worker falling to his death became a popular classic, enamouring him to a public struggling with political repression under military rule. He learnt the importance of words at a time when words were banned. In 1968, Buarque's first play, Roda Viva, an anarchic satire, landed him in trouble with the law. Like his fellow musicians - Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, Buarque was forced to flee the country. He went to live in Italy for 18 months.

PRESENTER

Jose Abreu Ferreira is a PhD student at the Centre for Comparative Literature and sessional instructor at the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, University of Toronto. His areas of research interest include post-structural and post-colonial theories; diaspora and transnational studies; immigration and literature; and, immigrant writing in contemporary Portuguese, Brazilian and Canadian literatures.

All movies are in Portuguese with English subtitles. Each movie will be introduced and contextualized by Luso-Brazilian studies specialists, and a Q&A session will follow each screening.

Admission to this event is free, but please take the time to complete our event registration form:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1T9VQNh44lvjRV7OORv_hQc8QtGqC30VOnQoCLrb_1bA/viewform

For further information regarding this event, please contact fabiano.rocha@utoronto.ca or hudson.moura@utoronto.ca.

“Foi quando apareceu aquela que se deitou na minha cama e me ensinou a escrever de trás pra diante. Zelosa dos meus escritos, só ela os sabia ler, mirando-se no espelho, e de noite apagava o que de dia fora escrito, para que eu jamais cessasse de escrever meu livro nela […] e a mulher amada, cujo leite eu já sorvera, me fez beber da água com que havia lavado sua blusa.” Chico Buarque de Holanda - Budapeste

Luso-Brazilian Film Screenings: Literature & Film

The Department of Spanish and Portuguese in collaboration with the University of Toronto Libraries would like to invite you to the Luso-Brazilian Film Screenings: Literature & Cinema that will be held every Monday during the month of March at the Media Commons Theatre (Robarts Library, 3rd floor).

PLACE: Media Commons Theatre (Robarts Library, 3rd Floor)

DATE: Mondays of March 3, 10, 17, 24, and 31, 2014


TIME: 6:30pm to 9:30pm

Screening 1 (Mar 10, 2014): Macunaima (Brazil, 1969) Directed by Joaquim Pedro de Andrade. Based on Mario de Andrade's novel

Screening 2 (Mar 17, 2014): Mutum (Brazil, 2007) Directed by Sandra Kogut. Based on “Campo Geral” by João Guimarães Rosa

Screening 3 (Mar 24, 2014): Sleepwalking Land (Terra Sonâmbula, Portugal/Moçambique, 2007) Directed by Teresa Prata. Based on Mia Couto’s novel

Screening 4 (Mar 31, 2014): Budapest (Brazil, 2009) Directed by Walter Carvalho. Based on Chico Buarque’s novel

All movies are in Portuguese with English subtitles. Each movie will be introduced and contextualized by Luso-Brazilian studies specialists, and a Q&A session will follow each screening.

Admission to this event is free, but please take the time to complete our event registration form:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1T9VQNh44lvjRV7OORv_hQc8QtGqC30VOnQoCLrb_1bA/viewform

For further information regarding this event, please contact fabiano.rocha [] utoronto [] ca or hudson.moura [] utoronto [] ca.

CFP: INTERACTIVE NARRATIVES, NEW MEDIA AND SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT -- University of Toronto

INTERACTIVE NARRATIVES, NEW MEDIA AND SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT

OCTOBER 24-25, 2014

University of Toronto

Call for Papers: International conference “Interactive Narratives, New Media and Social Engagement”   

Date: October 24^th and 25^th, 2014

Place: Victoria College, University of Toronto, Canada

Submission deadline: May 1^st, 2014

An interdisciplinary conference for researchers and practitioners.

How has the digital screen changed our world in general and narrative and visual arts in particular is the broad focus of the second Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Toronto and BRAFFTV Film and Media international Conference.

We are interested, for instance, in the evolution of narrative practices from text-based literature to the advent of the digital revolution as storytelling moves from literacy to so-called post-literacy.

The prevalence of new interactive digital narrative in all areas from games, to literature, to films, to video art has resulted in new forms of storytelling and, accordingly, provoked new practices of reading that transforms readers/viewers into active collaborators.

We are interested in exploring transmedia, intermediality, the role of social media and digital globalization as well as narratives in games and graphic novels. Also, the impact of the digital screen on art and new exhibition practices.

Physical public space is increasingly being substituted or augmented by virtual space through digital screens (e.g. video, film, computer). What effect do these new developments have on social space, seen here as encompassing both physical public spaces (streets, hotels, coffee shops) as well as virtual space (YouTube, Vine, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Orkut, etc.)? How do these novel practices effect previously clearly demarcated frontiers between the public and the private?

Throughout the world, from Brazil to Turkey to Canada, we have recently witness the influence of social media on political participation. How have these new platforms engendered innovative forms of expression?

The Conference aims to bring together researchers, practitioners and theorists for a two-day conference at Victoria College at the University of Toronto on October 24-25. The presented papers will be evaluated for possible inclusion in a special issue of a journal on the proceedings.

The following key topics/areas will be emphasized during the conference:

1. Intermediality, Transmedia and Remediation

2. Expanded Cinema and Digital Screen Aesthetics

3. Transnational Cinema and International Co-Productions

4. Digital Animation and Games: Narrative and Interactivity

5. Snack Media, Mobile Screens, Micro Movie, and Microblogging

6. Social Media Engagement and New Technologies

7. Hacktivism and Political Engagement

8. Digital Art and Literature (eBooks, eReaders)

SUBMITTING PROPOSALS:

Send an Abstract (between 180 and 300 words in length including the research objectives, theoretical framework and methodology) and Brief Bio-CV (100 words maximum) by May 1^st, 2014 to brafftvconference@gmail.com Each proposal must include title, name(s), affiliation, institutional address and email addresses of the author(s).

Travel and accommodation costs will be covered by participants. The organizers will, on request, provide the necessary letters for the purposes of issuing visas to foreign visitors. 

Email Contact: brafftvconference@gmail.com

Further information on our previous conference visit the website: http://brafftv.com/en/conference.html

Course: Luso-Brazilian Short Story

University of Toronto

Department of Spanish & Portuguese

PRT 458H1S  The Luso-Brazilian Short Story

Spring 2014 – Jan 8-April 2

Instructor: Dr. Hudson Moura

Schedule: Wed 10 a.m.-12 p.m.

Ability to read Portuguese. Class will be conducted in English.

The development of the Luso-Brazilian short story, from the oral tradition to its modern literary form, various short story theories and genres will be examined through a close reading and analysis of selected works and film adaptations from Machado de Assis, Eça de Queiroz, Graciliano Ramos, Mia Couto, João Guimarães Rosa, José Saramago, Clarice Lispector, Murilo Rubião, Adélia Prado and others.

Film Workshop: Editing Diversity

Film Workshop: Editing Diversity
Instructor: Hudson Moura
Date: Thursday, June 27th, 5:30-10:30 p.m.
Local: OCAD University - 100 McCaul Street, Toronto

Film editing lecture and hands-on workshop focusing on gender and sexual diversity films. It will introduce participants to the effects of montage in cinema, and its development within film history and theory.

Case Study: The Secret Files of Amylton de Almeida Director’s Cut (2004/2013, documentary, 52 min., dir. Hudson Moura). For 40 years Amylton de Almeida was one of the most prolific and influential Brazilian documentarians and film critics, as well as a LGBT and cultural activist. He died of emphysema in 1995, just before the beginning of the editing of his debut work as a fictional feature director, inspired by Douglas Sirk and Rainer W. Fassbinder films. A few days later, his family discovered five letters addressed to five friends; his secret files.

Dr. Hudson Moura teaches film and media courses at OCAD University and Ryerson University. Also, he serves as programmer at BRAFFTV-Brazilian Film and Television Festival.

Cost: Free
Enrollment is limited to: 10
This is an introductory level class. No previous experience is required.

Have you seen a Canadian film lately?

NFB's Hunger by Peter Foldès

In this animated short, director Peter Foldès depicts one man’s descent into greed and gluttony. Rapidly dissolving and ever-evolving images create a contrast between abundance and want. One of the first films to use computer animation, this satire serves as a cautionary tale against self-indulgence in a world still plagued by hunger and poverty.

Peter Foldes' satirical film was one of the first done with computer animation. It tells the story of a wealthy executive who allows his greed and gluttony to take over his life. 

Hunger by Peter Foldès, National Film Board of Canada

Mouawad Works in Many Languages

On stage or off, there's nothing that Lebanese-born Québécois playwright Wajdi Mouawad likes to do more than drop bombs. By all accounts, he's a dangerous, angry artist to be kept on theatrical watch lists across North America and Europe, dramaturgically profiled and critically cross-examined. Here is some of the corroborating evidence.

"I was 27 years old and for the first time in my life I discovered the meaning of theatre with my own friends, my words, my own thinking," he says, frequently stopping to find the exact word in English, his third language after Arabic and French. "I discovered that with your words, friends and thoughts you can create a story that tells your pain, bares your soul. I had the feeling that the story gave me life in the same way my mother gave me life. With this play, I learnt to understand, to think, to make theatre: to discover who I am and what I want to say."

His work is yet to be translated into Arabic or produced in his native Lebanon -- a place that permeates every word he writes. (His family fled Beirut when he was 16 to avoid an escalating civil war that lasted nearly 20 years.) "For me, Lebanon represents the beginning, childhood. It represents my family, a little garden behind the house in the mountain. It's the sun and strangely happy time. The war didn't touch my body, my mother, father, sister or brother. I was very young. I didn't choose to leave Lebanon. My parents chose to do that and go to France and then leave to go to Quebec.

"Sometimes I try to figure out what kind of man I would have been if we stayed in Lebanon. I ask myself if my parents didn't leave Lebanon, would I be making theatre? It's strange. It's like a ghost country in my heart . . . but it's the ghost that gave me life, my first years and my first language."

Neither the civil war in Lebanon nor any other Middle Eastern conflict is explicitly addressed in his work. The man himself may have a reputation for being a provocateur, but his plays are not as overtly political or as documentary in purpose as the recent spate of lifted-from-the-headlines plays in England.

"In my last play [Scorched], I tried to be more political," he says with the tone of someone who has pulled his play right out of the fire. "I tried to say the real names: Palestinians, Israelis, Syrians, Lebanese but every time I make that, the poetry and the theatre stray far away from me. I stop and they come back. Maybe one day I will write political plays. For now, every time I speak about a Middle East tragedy, I can't name it."

The Globe and Mail – Nov 11, 2005

Kamal Al-Solaylee 

INCENDIES (Scorched)
In the introduction to Scorched, Wajdi Mouawad describes the play as an exploration of  “the questions of origins”.  The story centres on twins – a brother Simon and sister Janine – who are summoned to the office of a notary to hear the last will and testament of their mother, Nawal. They are both handed a sealed letter written by their mother; one is to be delivered to their brother and one to their father.  Both thought their father was dead and never knew of a brother, and so the mystery begins.  The letters send them on a journey into their mother’s past – to a Middle Eastern country engulfed in a civil war where she was a political activist and later became a prisoner of war.  The play also follows the life of Nawal – from her youth and her liberation through education to her final years spent in silence.  Through poetic language and startling imagery, the play connects the origins of these three members of a family in startling and unforgettable ways.

Wajdi Mouawad chose to set the action of Scorched in an unnamed Middle Eastern country. This allows for the audience to consider that the conflicts and relationships in the play may be possible in any country that has ever suffered the violence of war.  This choice is what makes the play more universal and accessible to a wider audience. 

 

Scorched is transcendent theatre, with moments that cause the pulse to quicken and the heart to skip a beat.  Writing on an operatic scale, Wajdi Mouawad has an intuitive understanding of tragedy.  Scorched immediately brings to life a world in which ghosts from the past coexist with the living, where characters speak in arias, their phrases resonating from the depths of great emotion.  An epic tale for our 21st century of conflict and displacement, Scorched is a play that allows us a glimpse into the well of human suffering, then hands the torch of redemption to characters with the strength to lead themselves, and us, out of the darkness.  

“Now that we are together, everything feels better.” – Nawal, the mother in Scorched

In Scorched, Wajdi Mouawad has constructed a mystery.  A woman, locked in a self-imposed silence for five years, save for this one phrase she repeated throughout her life, has left a letter for her twin children, a boy and a girl.  Find your father, the letter instructs, and your brother.  Eventually, both siblings journey to the country of their mother’s birth, retracing their early childhood and their mother’s past.  As they move closer to finding their father and subsequently their brother, we begin to understand the genesis of their mother’s grief and appreciate the source of her immeasurable strength, her sacrifices and the love she bore for her children.  Throughout all of this, Nawal’s repeated phrase is an echo of hope.

 The chronology of the play is not straightforward – time and place jump from scene to scene, and often overlap.  Characters from the past and present walk by each other and even talk to each other.  For example, in the scene where Nawal’s grandmother Nazira is buried in the past, a cell phone rings.  The villagers run away, revealing the present scene of Alphonse, Simon, and Janine standing by Nawal’s grave.

The dialogue in the play is also not naturalistic.  The characters’ speech is often poetic, and characters speak in monologue-like paragraphs instead of quick realistic dialogue. 

There are many aspects of Scorched that are large and epic.  Janine and Simon must go on a journey in an unfamiliar country to discover their mother’s story.  Nawal and Sawda go on a cross country journey to try and find Nawal’s son.  Scorched is also reminiscent of Greek tragedy (the story is similar to Oedipus Rex by Sophocles), and certain scenes suggest rites and rituals (the burial practices), and myth and legend (Abdessamad tells Janine that Nawal and Wahab’s love story is a legend).  

The actors in Scorched portray inanimate objects such as trees, a window and a door.  One actor plays many characters, and three different actors play the character of Nawal at different ages.  When Janine calls Simon, she doesn’t actually have a phone in her hand, but it is still evident, with the help of the sound design, that she is on the phone.  These examples indicate that Scorched is an expressionistic play.

Expressionism: a style of playwriting and stage presentation stressing the emotional content of a play, the subjective reactions of the characters, symbolic or abstract representations of reality, and non-naturalistic techniques of scenic design.

Scorched (Incendies) enjoyed tremendous success while on tour throughout France at Hexagone, Scène Nationale de Meylan, Théâtre 71 Malakoff and Théâtre National de Toulouse, to name a few, and in Québec when it played at Théâtre de Quat’Sous and Théâtre du Nouveau Monde, in Montréal.

Scorched was first presented in a staged reading at The Old Vic Theatre in London, as part of  “4play Canada”, a showcase event co-presented by the National Arts Centre (Ottawa) and the Canadian High Commission (London, UK).

                            

Canadians reflect a dynamic and evolving cultural, ethnic and linguistic makeup that is found nowhere else on earth.  As recognized by the Department of Canadian Heritage (Multiculturalism): “Approximately 200,000 immigrants a year from all parts of the globe continue to choose Canada, drawn by its quality of life and its reputation as an open, peaceful and caring society that welcomes newcomers and values diversity.”  Canada’s approach to diversity is based on the understanding that “respect for cultural distinctiveness is intrinsic to an individual’s sense of self worth and identity, and a society that accommodates everyone equally is a society that encourages achievement, participation, attachment to country and a sense of belonging.” 

The diversity of cultures in Canada is reflected in a rich tapestry of traditions, and these are especially important to new immigrants.  The 2003 Ethnic Diversity Survey conducted by Statistics Canada, for example, found that 57 per cent of first generation Canadians had a strong sense of belonging to their ethnic or cultural group, and about 63 per cent (or 6.5 million people) said that maintaining ethnic customs and traditions was important. 

One of the greatest areas for new audience development is in culturally diverse communities since the Canadian population is growing more from immigration than from natural increase.  In May 2001, 5.4 million people (or 18 per cent of the population) were born outside the country, and of the 1.8 million immigrants who arrived during the 1990s, 73 per cent chose to live in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal – cities that are also home to the largest concentration of Canadian artists and arts organizations. 

The voices of New Canadians are vital in the arts.  Immigrant playwrights share with all Canadians their heritage, their immigrant experience and their views on their new land.  The website http://www.ryerson.ca/library/events/asian_heritage/authors.html lists over 140 writers of Asian (Middle East to Japan) descent.  Many more from Africa, South America and Europe may be found in a web search. Three of these are mentioned below.

Source: Study Guide for Scorched by Wajdi Mouawad (National Arts Centre)

Diaspora In Conversation with…

International Diaspora Film Festival 2012
Through Female Eyes

 1 to 6 November 2012, Toronto
Innis Town Hall & Carlton Cinemas
 In Conversation with…
Filmmakers, actors, producers, and film scholars will be in attendance for intimate discussions with the audience.

 

Atom Egoyan and Arsinée Khanjian will share their CALENDAR with the audience. An on-stage interview and Q/A after the film screening.
Monday, 5 November 2012, 7:00 PM, Innis Town Hall, Free Event

 

Cyrus Sundar Singh will be present after the screening of his film MASHALA for discussion.
Sunday, 4 November 2012, 8:00 PM, Carlton Cinema, Free Event

 

Elie Wajeman, the winner of Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight 2012 prize for ALIYAH will attend the screening for a dialogue with the audience.
Sunday, 4 November 2012, 6:00 PM, Innis Town Hall

 

Elisa Paloschi, the director of EMBRACING VOICES will present her film about the luminary jazz musician Jane Bunnett.
Sunday, 4 November 2012, 6:00 PM, Carlton Cinema

 

Sergei Kapterev, is a Senior Researcher at the Research Institute of Cinema Art in Moscow. He will discuss the Soviet-Armenian epic film KHAZ-PUSH (1928).
Tuesday, 6 November 2012, 7:00 PM, Innis Town Hall, Free Event

 

Vincent Ebrahim, the lead actor in MATERIAL, and well-known for his TV hit The Kumars at No. 42 will entertain the audience with his views of the film.
Sunday, 4 November 2012, 8:00 PM, Innis Town Hall

York University Student Showcase, young talented filmmakers from York U will present their works in a special screening of their shorts.
Sunday, 4 November 2012, 2:00 PM, Carlton Cinema, Free Event

Tickets
General: $10 online, $12 at door
Seniors and Students: $8 at door only (please provide ID)
Festival Pass: $80 online, $100 at door
www.diasporafilmfest.com

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Free Documentary Making Workshop at BRAFFTV 2012

Europa ‘51: Inspiring Hope

“God never comes out of the shadows to lend a hand and clarify the situation for us. Which means that God is hidden in this film [Europa ‘51] in the same way that God is hidden in life—forever immanent, provoking anxiety and inspiring hope” 

Martin Scorsese

Umberto Eco on Casablanca

Casablanca,

or,

The Clichés are Having a Ball

By Umberto Eco

When people in their fifties sit down before their television sets for a rerun of Casablanca, it is an ordinary matter of nostalgia. However, when the film is shown in American universities, the boys and girls greet each scene and canonical line of dialogue ("Round up the usual suspects," "Was that cannon fire, or is it my heart pounding?" -- or even every time that Bogey says "kid") with ovations usually reserved for football games. And I have seen the youthful audience in an Italian art cinema react in the same way. What then is the fascination of Casablanca?
The question is a legitimate one, for aesthetically speaking (or by any strict critical standards) Casablanca is a very mediocre film. It is a comic strip, a hotch-potch, low on psychological credibility, and with little continuity in its dramatic effects. And we know the reason for this: The film was made up as the shooting went along, and it was not until the last moment that the director and script writer knew whether Ilse would leave with Victor or with Rick. So all those moments of inspired direction that wring bursts of applause for their unexpected boldness actually represent decisions taken out of desperation. What then accounts for the success of this chain of accidents, a film that even today, seen for a second, third, or fourth time, draws forth the applause reserved for the operatic aria we love to hear repeated, or the enthusiasm we accord to an exciting discovery? There is a cast of formidable hams. But that is not enough.
Here are the romantic lovers -- he bitter, she tender -- but both have been seen to better advantage. And Casablanca is not Stagecoach, another film periodically revived. Stagecoach is a masterpiece in every respect. Every element is in its proper place, the characters are consistent from one moment to the next, and the plot (this too is important) comes from Maupassant--at least the first part of it. And so? So one is tempted to read Casablanca the way T. S. Eliot reread Hamlet. He attributed its fascination not to its being a successful work (actually he considered it one of Shakespeare's less fortunate plays) but to something quite the opposite: Hamlet was the result of an unsuccessful fusion of several earlier Hamlets, one in which the theme was revenge (with madness as only a stratagem), and another whose theme was the crisis brought on by the mother's sin, with the consequent discrepancy between Hamlet's nervous excitation and the vagueness and implausibility of Gertrude's crime. So critics and public alike find Hamlet beautiful because it is interesting, and believe it to be interesting because it is beautiful.
On a smaller scale, the same thing happened to Casablanca. Forced to improvise a plot, the authors mixed in a little of everything, and everything they chose came from a repertoire of the tried and true. When the choice of the tried and true is limited, the result is a trite or mass-produced film, or simply kitsch. But when the tried and true repertoire is used wholesale, the result is an architecture like Gaudi's Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. There is a sense of dizziness, a stroke of brilliance.
But now let us forget how the film was made and see what it has to show us. It opens in a place already magical in itself -- Morocco, the Exotic -- and begins with a hint of Arab music that fades into "La Marseillaise." Then as we enter Rick's Place we hear Gershwin. Africa France, America. At once a tangle of Eternal Archetypes comes into play. These are situations that have presided over stories throughout the ages. But usually to make a good story a single archetypal situation is enough. More than enough. Unhappy Love, for example, or Flight. But Casablanca is not satisfied with that: It uses them all. The city is the setting for a Passage, the passage to the Promised Land (or a Northwest Passage if you like). But to make the passage one must submit to a test, the Wait ("they wait and wait and wait," says the off-screen voice at the beginning). The passage from the waiting room to the Promised Land requires a Magic Key, the visa. It is around the winning of this Key that passions are unleashed. Money (which appears at various points, usually in the form of the Fatal Game, roulette) would seem to be the means for obtaining the Key. But eventually we discover that the Key can be obtained only through a Gift -- the gift of the visa, but also the gift Rick makes of his Desire by sacrificing himself For this is also the story of a round of Desires, only two of which are satisfied: that of Victor Laszlo, the purest of heroes, and that of the Bulgarian couple. All those whose passions are impure fail.
Thus, we have another archetype: the Triumph of Purity. The impure do not reach the Promised Land; we lose sight of them before that. But they do achieve purity through sacrifice -- and this means Redemption. Rick is redeemed and so is the French police captain. We come to realize that underneath it all there are two Promised Lands: One is America (though for many it is a false goal), and the other is the Resistance -- the Holy War. That is where Victor has come from, and that is where Rick and the captain are going, to join de Gaulle. And if the recurring symbol of the airplane seems every so often to emphasize the flight to America, the Cross of Lorraine, which appears only once, anticipates the other symbolic gesture of the captain, when at the end he throws away the bottle of Vichy water as the plane is leaving. On the other hand the myth of sacrifice runs through the whole film: Ilse's sacrifice in Paris when she abandons the man she loves to return to the wounded hero, the Bulgarian bride's sacrifice when she is ready to yield herself to help her husband, Victor's sacrifice when he is prepared to let Ilse go with Rick so long as she is saved.
Into this orgy of sacrificial archetypes (accompanied by the Faithful Servant theme in the relationship of Bogey and the black man Dooley Wilson) is inserted the theme of Unhappy Love: unhappy for Rick, who loves Ilse and cannot have her; unhappy for Ilse, who loves Rick and cannot leave with him; unhappy for Victor, who understands that he has not really kept Ilse. The interplay of unhappy loves produces various twists and turns: In the beginning Rick is unhappy because he does not understand why Ilse leaves him; then Victor is unhappy because he does not understand why Ilse is attracted to Rick; finally Ilse is unhappy because she does not understand why Rick makes her leave with her husband. These three unhappy (or Impossible) loves take the form of a Triangle. But in the archetypal love-triangle there is a Betrayed Husband and a Victorious Lover. Here instead both men are betrayed and suffer a loss, but, in this defeat (and over and above it) an additional element plays a part, so subtly that one is hardly aware of it. It is that, quite subliminally, a hint of male or Socratic love is established. Rick admires Victor, Victor is ambiguously attracted to Rick, and it almost seems at a certain point as if each of the two were playing out the duel of sacrifice in order to please the other. In any case, as in Rousseau's Confessions, the woman places herself as Intermediary between the two men. She herself is not a bearer of positive values; only the men are.
Against the background of these intertwined ambiguities, the characters are stock figures, either all good or all bad. Victor plays a double role, as an agent of ambiguity in the love story, and an agent of clarity in the political intrigue -- he is Beauty against the Nazi Beast. This theme of Civilization against Barbarism becomes entangled with the others, and to the melancholy of an Odyssean Return is added the warlike daring of an Iliad on open ground.
Surrounding this dance of eternal myths, we see the historical myths, or rather the myths of the movies, duly served up again. Bogart himself embodies at least three: the Ambiguous Adventurer, compounded of cynicism and generosity; the Lovelorn Ascetic; and at the same time the Redeemed Drunkard (he has to be made a drunkard so that all of a sudden he can be redeemed, while he was already an ascetic, disappointed in love). Ingrid Bergman is the Enigmatic Woman, or Femme Fatale. Then such myths as: They're Playing Our Song; the Last Day in Paris; America, Africa, Lisbon as a Free Port; and the Border Station or Last Outpost on the Edge of the Desert. There is the Foreign Legion (each character has a different nationality and a different story to tell), and finally there is the Grand Hotel (people coming and going). Rick's Place is a magic circle where everything can (and does) happen: love, death, pursuit, espionage, games of chance, seductions, music, patriotism. (The theatrical origin of the plot, and its poverty of means, led to an admirable condensation of events in a single setting.) This place is Hong Kong, Macao, I'Enfer duJeu, an anticipation of Lisbon, and even Showboat.
But precisely because all the archetypes are here, precisely because Casablanca cites countless other films, and each actor repeats a part played on other occasions, the resonance of intertextuality plays upon the spectator. Casablanca brings with it, like a trail of perfume, other situations that the viewer brings to bear on it quite readily, taking them without realizing it from films that only appeared later, such as To Have and Have Not, where Bogart actually plays a Hemingway hero, while here in Casablanca he already attracts Hemingwayesque connotations by the simple fact that Rick, so we are told, fought in Spain (and, like Malraux, helped the Chinese Revolution). Peter Lorre drags in reminiscences of Fritz Lang; Conrad Veidt envelops his German officer in a faint aroma of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari -- he is not a ruthless, technological Nazi, but a nocturnal and diabolical Caesar.
Thus Casablanca is not just one film. It is many films, an anthology. Made haphazardly, it probably made itself, if not actually against the will of its authors and actors, then at least beyond their control. And this is the reason it works, in spite of aesthetic theories and theories of film making. For in it there unfolds with almost telluric force the power of Narrative in its natural state, without Art intervening to discipline it. And so we can accept it when characters change mood, morality, and psychology from one moment to the next, when conspirators cough to interrupt the conversation if a spy is approaching, when whores weep at the sound of "La Marseillaise." When all the archtypes burst in shamelessly, we reach Homeric depths. Two cliches make us laugh. A hundred cliches move us. For we sense dimly that the cliches are talking among themselves, and celebrating a reunion. Just as the height of pain may encounter sensual pleasure, and the height of perversion border on mystical energy, so too the height of banality allows us to catch a glimpse of the sublime. Something has spoken in place of the director. If nothing else, it is a phenomenon worthy of awe.

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From: Signs of Life in the U.S.A.: Readings on Popular Culture for Writers, Sonia Maasik and Jack Solomon, eds. (Boston: Bedford Books, 1994) pp. 260-264.