Posted in: Yemen Observer
Written By: Nick Kennedy & Raghda Gamal
Article Date: Dec 20, 2008
Yemen’s first locally produced movie, The Losing Bet has proven that it was a winning bet for everyone who participated in it’s production. The movie, which premiered in August at the Movenpick Hotel in Sana’a, and became available soon thereafter on CD was shown on Yemeni television Thursday, December 11, and has been the talk of the public ever since.
Years after disappearing from his home village, a man returns home much changed from how his friends and family remember him. The friendly, pious and happy brother, son, and friend they remember is gone, replaced with a cold, hostile and intense stranger, sharing only a name and face in common with his old self. Back in his home village, his new beliefs begin to manifest themselves as he lashes out against everything which goes against his increasingly narrow interpretation of the Islamic faith, including his sister’s uncovered face, and his wife’s works of art.
The Losing Bet presents a new way of fighting terrorism; by opening the public’s eyes to the strategies used by terror cells in their recruitment of youth, and by showing the negative effects of terrorism on Yemeni families.
The movie begins with the introduction of two smart and educated young Yemeni Women, Shaima’a who is fluent in two languages and her sister-in-law Najat, a painter. The film shows how these two women and their families have a great relationship with tourists, and they illustrate the generosity of Yemenis by holding a big lunch.
There are scenes of traditional dancing where tourists and Yemeni men dance together and the film builds on the beautiful friendship between Shaima’a and Maryah highlighting what a great county Yemen truly is.The movie presents the problem of unemployment and the lack of parental awareness as the main causes of terrorism in Yemen.
The concept of violent jihad is tackled by an extremist’s friends and family who seek to convince him that raising a family and resisting corrupting temptations are in reality the true jihad. The film follows three main storylines. The first is that of the extremist who seeks to recruit others particularly the disenfranchised youth to his cause by filling their minds with false ideas of jihad, heaven, and religious duty.
The second follows a repentant extremist, who on a recruiting mission returns home to meet the wife and son he abandoned for a life of poverty years ago. Realizing the error of his ways, he abandon’s his life as a jihadi to care for his family.
The third story follows a group of tourists, one of who befriends a Yemeni girl she meets in the country. The three storylines interweave to show the causes and ultimately the price of terrorism, which arises predominantly from a lack of opportunity. The movie compares the lives of a successful university graduate who goes on to work for a foreign company with those of unemployed young men recruited by extremists.
The justification for terror comes from a perversion of the true faith, which is used to convince those seeking direction in their life that only by attacking the so-called enemies of God can they fulfill their religious duty.
Finally, the three story lines merge when extremists kill a group of tourists in an attack modeled on the 2007 attack against Spanish tourists in Marib. However the attack kills the father of a member of the extremist group, and combined with the tourist’s loss of their family members, this serves to show that with terrorism, no one wins. The terrorist attack scene in the movie is very important to the plot, but the most heart-wrenching scenes in the movie are those involving the actress Mona al-Asbahi, who performs her role with great talent making the audience shed tears.
The actor Nabeel Hezam, also plays his role with unbelievable talent and credibility, and is considered another of the movie’s successes. By directing this movie, Dr.Fadhel al-Olefi proves how much he’ll always love Yemen and so do WE :)
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