Human rights manifesto The picture of the Egyptian Maher Sabri belongs to the category of artistic and journalistic films, for which the story told is just an occasion to talk about certain social problems that, in the author’s opinion, need urgent resolution or at least clear designation. At the same time, it is implied that there is not the slightest sense to seriously discuss dramaturgy, acting, individual mise-en-scene and other components of feature films. Because the first is at the level of an article in a political journal, the second is the fruit of the enthusiasm of amateur volunteers, and the third are knit together in an arbitrary order that hardly fits into a coherent narrative.
But the topic to which the authors of All My Life call for discussion is so hot that it could be burned about it, just as Theo van Gogh and Ian Hirsi Ali burned about their Submission. Talking about homosexuality in a traditionalist Islamic society is not accepted at all, and as frankly as Maher Sabri and like-minded people do, means running into a whole series of fatwas with all sorts of punishments from muftis and sheikhs of various calibers. It is not at all modest to speak out in defense of the musical passions of modern Arab youth, as Ahmed Bulan did in the film “The Angels of Satan”, telling about the persecution of heavy metal fans in his native Morocco. Here we are talking about fundamental concepts for Islam, which are audaciously ignored by the heroes of Toul omry. Rami and his friends are not just defending their privacy, they are going against the system of Islamic values. It is no coincidence that one of the main characters of the film is an activist of the feminist movement Dahlia, passionately defending both the rights of women and the rights of sexual minorities. This character does not participate in the main action of the film, but is extremely important for revealing the author's position, which is not confined only to the problem of homosexuality.
The same goal is served by another character who remains on the periphery of the plot and does not affect its development. Fanatic Muslim Ahmad is associated with the main character of the picture Rami only by the fact that he is his neighbor in the stairwell. Otherwise, their fates do not overlap. But the director needs it to show the narrowness and narrowness of religious consciousness: naturally, in the field of sexual relations, where the taboo system transcends all reasonable limits. Ahmad in his life is guided solely by the surahs of the Quran and the instructions of Islamic authorities, sincerely considering a woman a vessel of sin. But unable to cope with the natural male desires, he regularly masturbates, peeping at a sexy green woman trading right in front of his window. But one day a girl who likes a young and beautiful young man comes to his modest apartment. And Ahmad plunges into the abyss of Hell. The storyline of the young fanatic, unlike the main one, is decided in a comedic way and allows you to relax and laugh a little. And at the same time gives the viewer the only heterosexual scene in the film, filled to the brim with explicit homoerotic episodes. However, laughing at Islamic morality is even more dangerous than confronting homophobia in a traditionalist society.
With the latter, by the way, the case of Maher Sabri is not very successful. For all the passion of his polemical message, for all the conviction of the need for equal rights for all possible and impossible minorities, the artist in the soul of the director struggled to overcome the journalist, as a result of which the figure of his main character came out extremely controversial. And no matter how much the author defends his protégé (or perhaps alter ego?), it will be very difficult for the viewer to love, accept and justify Rami. And not because this potential viewer is an ardent homophobe. Just too much in the image of the protagonist of selfishness, too easily he plays with the fates of people who trusted him. Because of his unrequited love for him, the young Copt Mina tries to commit suicide, the feeling of which could not be cooled either by his tyrannical mother or by daily conversations with the confessor. Acquaintance with Rami destroys the life of a simple village boy Atef who came to work in Cairo: he was not sufficiently educated for a young man who considers himself an intellectual and artistic nature. In an attempt to forget Valid, who abandoned him for the sake of a woman, Rami rushes into all seriousness, not disdaining accidental connections in bars and on the streets. Of course, from the point of view of modern Western legislation, he has every right to do so as an adult capable person. This is what Maher Sabri tries to emphasize, but he does not turn out too convincingly.
But the other characters of the film are much more cute: the doctor Karim and his American lover Mark, the same Atef and Mina, stubborn and fierce in her struggle with the windmills of Dahlia - you can sympathize with them, you can worry for them. The film's authors insist that Rami is the same at heart - just going through the black days that were superimposed by the activation of a homophobic campaign in Egypt in connection with the mass arrest of visitors to the Queen Boat nightclub, which was the center of the LGBT community in Cairo. But they have to take their word for it. However, this word in the film “All my life” sounded very loud and defiant to the Arab world. The other thing is that the world doesn’t give a damn about it – the wrong Egyptians, Moroccans, Tunisians and Libyans still have to fight for their rights mainly from abroad. And when this struggle is transferred to the streets of Arab cities, other people benefit from it. Rami and his friends could hardly breathe more freely after the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak.