heddaya@harvard.ARPA ( Solom) (10/09/85)
"Adieu Bonaparte" is a historical movie by Youssef Shaheen, who is a famous
and serious Egyptian director. The film is a joint Egyptian/French
production, with French actors playing the French characters, and Egyptian
actors playing the Egyptian characters (sounds reasonable, eh!). You might
wonder what language they spoke, and the simple answer is that the French
spoke French and broken Arabic while the Egyptians spoke Arabic and broken
French.
What follows is a review of this movie, which was shown at MIT on October
4. Arabic words and phrases are enclosed in angle brackets.
As a historical movie, Adieu Bonaparte is very good. But, as a depiction
of Aly the Egyptian who chooses to learn from--and associate with--the
French, it is superb. Against the background of Napoleon's campaign in
Egypt (1798-1801), we see Aly, the middle son of a poor Alexandrian baker,
treading no-man's land between Egypt and France, East and West, and
conqueror and conquered.
Aly learns French from his French girlfriend and lover even before
Napoleon comes to Alexandria. And, after his family flees to Cairo,
pursued by the terror of the French army, he gets a chance to exercise
his French. On the way from Alexandria to Cairo, the modern French
army quickly destroys the puny mediaeval Mamluk army, as well as the
patriotic but ineffective defenses put up by the people of Cairo.
Aly's chance to exercise his French comes when Cafarelli, a French
general and Napoleon's chief engineer, recruits him to assist in
running the printing press.
Meanwhile we see Aly's elder brother, Bakr, organizing and leading the
Egyptian underground along with the clergy of <'al'azhar>. ['al'azhar is a
mosque/university dedicated to Islamic theology founded around 1000 AD, and
still in existence]. They try to arm themselves from the Mamluk arsenals;
but in vain, since whatever remained from the Mamluks in Cairo became
traitors! On a parallel but opposite line, Napoleon tries to gain Egyptian
acceptance by joining with the <daraawiysh> in a <thikr>, and wearing a
<galabiya>. Actions which only succeed in drawing disapproval from his
officers.
All this time Aly is learning more and more from Cafarelli, who admits him
into his lab, and teaches him some astronomy and chemistry. Aly's
fascination with Cafarelli and the French doesn't prevent him from using
the printing press to print anti-French fliers and distributing them. But,
in turn, even that doesn't gain him Bakr's acceptance who considers the
French to be <kafarah>--which roughly means infidels--as well as
oppressors.
Both sides persist along their respective, but opposite lines, with
Aly engaged in both activities (!). Napoleon loses his navy in <'abu
qiyr>, which cuts him off from France, so he intensifies his
development work in Egypt, represented by a windmill that Cafarelli
builds. The French also try to fly a balloon in a public
demonstration to impress the people with their know-how, but the
balloon explodes in the air.
Some Egyptians return to their daily life, like Aly's father (a baker) who
doesn't care for whom he works as long he is not idle, even if that means
working for the French. Most Egyptians, however, are discontent with the
French occupation, and the resistance comes to a head when some of the the
French Head Quarters are attacked and sacked. Caffarelli's lab is
destroyed along with the ammunitions. Aly (who was active in the
resistance, printing and distributing) tries to rescue an astronomical
instrument but despairs when he discovers that the whole lab was destroyed.
This uprising brings the famous French retaliation: bombing 'al'azhar and
entering it on horse back.
The labs are gone, the windmill is stopped, and 'al'azhar has been defiled!
Aly's quarrel is now with both sides. On the one hand Cafarelli turns on
him and becomes "just a general at heart", and on the other hand, his
brother Bakr slaps him on the face for what he interprets as weakness
towards the French.
Napoleon has failed, and Aly, who "knows his path well", finds that he
is alone on it.
Is there any resolution to this sad state of affairs? Apparently not, but
there is a moral. In one of the final scenes, Cafarelli is told by his
friend to "love less, but like better" Aly and the East. In other words,
less passion, and more respect is due to the East from the West. In
another, Aly tells his new Egyptian girlfriend "<'ana maliysh da`wa bhhad,
wi mahhadish luh da`wa biyya>". This translates to "I should mind my own
business, and people should leave me alone".
I liked that movie. It was also technically very good, in terms of
the quality of the reproductions of war scenes and the depiction of
old Cairo, etc.
One last word. Are there any modern political interpretations for "Adieu
Bonaparte"? I think not. In his seminar before the movie, Youssef Shaheen
specifically said that he "hates symbols". He added that he may use a
convoluted approach, but no symbolism in the strict sense of the word. For
example, there is no way to take Cafarelli, who has one wooden leg, to
symbolize a modern political or military figure.
The stars of the movie were Michele Piccolet (sp?) playing Cafarelli, and
<Muhsen Muhiy Eddin> playing Aly.
Abdelsalam Heddaya
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Internet: heddaya@harvard.HARVARD.EDU
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--
Abdelsalam Heddaya
ARPAnet: heddaya@harvard.arpa
Internet: heddaya@harvard.HARVARD.EDU
UUCP: {seismo,ihnp4,allegra,...}!harvard!heddaya
USMail: Aiken Computation Lab,
Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA 02138