GROWING

LEISURE
5
SATURDAY l FEBRUARY 18 l 2017
OMANDAILYOBSERVER
JOSEPH NASR
BERLINOne drops you, trapped and
powerless, in the middle of
a civil war, while the other
uses humour to depict
what’s it like to start a
new life in Europe after escaping the same
conflict.
“Insyriated” and “The Other Side of
Hope” are two films about Syria, and they
brought tears and smiles to the Berlin Film
Festival.
Set entirely in a few rooms over the
course of one day as skirmishes rage and
ebb around them, Insyriated is designed
as an intense ensemble piece in which the
mother’s single-minded determination to
ensure the safety of her charges is severely
tested by outside forces.
Philippe Van Leeuw’s direction is
more fluid than his dialogue, and there’s
a crudeness to certain scenes that takes
the viewer out of the horror exactly when
we’re meant to feel it most. The sense of
suffocation remains, however, and given the
subject’s topicality, “Insyriated” will likely
see scattered play, especially at human-rights
showcases.
A concisely-told story that couldn’t be
more timely in view of the traumas currently
afflicting the Syrian people, Insyriated
features a terrific lead performance by
Hiam Abbass heading a multi-generational
ensemble cast.
Playing the lady of the house, Hiam
Abbass delivers an edge-of-seat performance,
supported by a career-changing turn by
Lebanese actress Diamand Bou Abboud as
a young mother who undergoes a horrible
ordeal.
By focusing on these two women, the
SYRIAN
FILMS
bring
tears and
smiles
film underlines the courage under fire of
ordinary Syrians who find themselves caught
in the midst of an all-out war while they sit
in their living room. It’s harrowing just to
watch this film, and the audience at its Berlin
Panorama premiere trooped out mutely after
the screening, too stunned to talk.
“It shocked people in a very smart
way. Westerners saw enough images of
destruction on their television screens. But
few of them know what Syrians are going
through or how they feel being trapped in
there,” Iraqi film critic Kais Kasim said.
The film forces viewers to ask themselves
how they would act in the same situation.
Belgian director Philippe Van Leeuw said
the silence that followed the screening as well
as seeing some of his actors and members of
the audience in tears at the end made him
think: “Mission accomplished.”
“It is hard for me to say I was happy when
I saw the film for the first time with the
audience,” said actress Hiam Abbass, who
plays Oum Yazan.
“It brought people close to the Syrian
people,” she said, adding that she had no
idea the film would leave people speechless.
“The Other Side of Hope” by Finnish
director Aki Kaurismaki uses humour
to depicts the experiences in Helsinki of
stowaway Syrian asylum seeker Khaled, who
decides to remain in the country illegally
after his application is rejected.
“The Other Side of Hope,” the new
Kaurismäki film that just premiered at the
Berlin International Film Festival, is set in
Helsinki, a cosmopolitan city that, in this
movie, at least, looks like a quaint, dinky,
pre-tech-era throwback. People sit in offices
in front of tiny manual typewriters, or they
stub out cigarettes in kitchens that look like
they belong in a Diane Arbus photograph.
A restaurant bar serves sardines — right
out of the can! — and has a décor that
consists of nothing more than bare walls, a
few tables and chairs, and a painting of Jimi
Hendrix. Is this what a dive in Helsinki really
looks like? Or is it just another of Kaurismäki’s
bare-bones movie sets? Maybe a bit of both.
His fate is to meet the main character in the
second story of the film, Finnish salesman
Wikstrom, who buys a restaurant in the capital
where he gives Khaled a job and a bed.
Wikstrom and the other Finns in the film
are burlesque characters, the source of most
of the light-hearted humour that almost
obscures Khaled’s ordeal: most of his family
died in a bomb in Aleppo and he lost his
sister shortly after they arrived in Europe
from Turkey.
A soothing balm for
genre
Debbie Harry,
frontwoman of rock
band Blondie, was
crowned a fashion
icon at London’s Elle
Style Awards, and she thanked her
punk influences for defining her style.
“Coming from the punk
point of view, which was very
deconstructionist, destructive,
and disrespectful, you have to find
something in yourself that makes
you feel a lot of different ways,” she
said at the red carpet event late on
Monday.
“So you have to feel beautiful, you
have to feel comfortable. I have to feel
sexy.”
Harry, who attended the event
with Blondie co-founder Chris Stein,
playfully wore a crown designed by
Vivienne Westwood, while posing
for photographers. Harry also wore a
Westwood red suit with a black-andwhite
shirt and shoes.
Blondie, an American punk band
famous for hits like “Heart of Glass”
and “Call Me” in the late 1970s and
early 1980s, is expected to release
their 11th studio album, “Pollinator”,
in May.
Debbie Harry was born Deborah
Ann Harry on July 1, 1945, in Miami,
Harry is the
Style Icon
Florida, and was adopted by Richard
and Catherine Harry when she
was 3 months old. Growing up in
Hawthorne, New Jersey, Harry sang
in the church choir.
She tried college for two years
before dropping out and moving to
New York City. Having sang with the
1960s’ band Wind in the Willows and
worked as a Playboy Bunny, Harry
ended up waiting tables at Max’s
Kansas City, a popular club that was
part of the downtown art and music
scene.
“It’s about the ongoing circle
of culture and how we all feed off
of each other and I think at this
particular time... it’s very important
to remember that. That we’re all so
deeply connected,” Harry said about
the new album.
British actress and United Nations
Women Global Goodwill Ambassador
Emma Watson was given the Woman
of the Year award in recognition of
her acting career and work for gender
equality.
Other winners included French
singer-songwriter Christine and the
Queens, who won Album of the Year,
and Christopher Bailey took home
British Brand of the Year for Burberry.
Erdem Moralioglu won British
Designer of the Year.
Blondie’s self-titled debut was
released in 1976. The following year,
the band toured in support of their
second album, Plastic Letters, which
scored a No 2 spot on the British
charts with single “Denis.” Over the
years, Blondie would continue to be a
formidable force in the UK.
SAKET SUMAN
Pulitzer Prize-winning
author Jhumpa
Lahiri’s latest book, at
first glance, is a sort
of soothing balm that
brings much-needed relief in the
non-fiction genre — addressing a
significant aspect of the publishing
industry, ignored for far too long
— which instantly catches the
imagination of readers.
But, does the offering answer as
many questions as it raises remains to
be decided.
The axiom that advises readers
not to judge a book by its cover finds
a challenge in Lahiri’s examination of
book covers. And why not, if you look
at the extent to which book covers have
been decisive in the success, as also
the failure, of books in contemporary
times.
In short, the attention span of a
normal reader is shrinking while the
number of books on offer is multiplying
manifold. Thus, the jacket plays a much
more vital role today than it would have
in the past.
The author’s clarity is commendable,
her choice of diction and simple flow of
words are sufficient to keep the readers
involved for the duration of a 71-pagelong
quick read. But the offering, which
is more of a lengthy essay, demands
sincere and uninterrupted attention
to understand the subtle yet complex
issues around book covers that Lahiri
explores. Interestingly, the book
begins on a rather unusual note,
“The Charm of the Uniform”. Lahiri
recalls being fascinated by the school
uniform of her cousins in Calcutta
(now Kolkata) and was herself
“tormented” by the freedom to wear
whatever one wanted in her school
in the US and says she would have
BOOK:
The Clothing of Books
AUTHOR:
Jhumpa Lahiri
PUBLISHER:
Penguin
preferred a uniform herself.
But is the author hinting at some
sort of uniformity in book covers? If
so, what would be the ideal uniform
for all books?
Lahiri reminds readers that
her mother “barely tolerated my
American clothes. She did not find
my jeans or T-shirts cute. The older I
grew, the more it mattered to her that
I, too, wear Indian or, at the very least,
concealing clothing. She held out for
my becoming a Bengali woman like
her.”
This is customary for many Indian
families. It is the context of book covers
that lends an altogether different
dimension to Lahiri’s childhood
protests against, both, freedom to wear
what one wanted at school and her
mother wanting her to wear concealing
clothing.
Was it regressive for a mother to
demand that her child wears only the
“traditional clothing of her country”
or was Lahiri’s “American clothes”, a
normal result of her upbringing in the
Western world?
In any case, if the same formula
is applied to the theme that Lahiri
explores, one again falls short of
answers.
Lahiri says that she would “certainly
prefer the uniformed elegance of a
series to an insipid cover” and calls
for upholding aesthetic values of book
covers. Lastly, a word on the cover of
“The Clothing of Books”. A simple
blue cover, displaying only the title
and author’s name, it just falls short
of appearing elegant. It looks simple,
unadorned and even undecorated.
While this may not be among the
eye-catchers in a bookstore displaying
hundreds of books, it is perhaps close
to how the author expects her book
covers to be.
FROM P1
Matchmaking a
GROWING
business
Of course, compatibility is not a fullproof
science — there are couples who
got along very well before marriage but
got separated after tying the knot due to
compatibility issues.”
Online matchmaking sites are popular
with Omani men and women who believe
they are past the ‘most eligible’ threshold
for marriage. Some desperate people also
falsify their details in the hope of snagging
a good match. Take the example of 34-yearold
Muna, who had recently approached a
matchmaker for assistance.
“Having crossed my thirties, my
chances of getting married were not too
bright. In desperation, I decided to seek
out a matchmaker. But in the information
that I had disclosed, I did not furnish my
exact age — a mistake that came back
to haunt me. Not long thereafter, a man
came to propose to me but found out I
was older than I had claimed. I was truly
embarrassed.”
Muna is determined to get the help of a
matchmaker in her quest for wedded bliss,
but she urges prospective brides to furnish
their correct details because, as she stresses,
the “entire matchmaking process and the
build-up to a relationship between two
individuals requires truthfulness”.
Muna cautions against matchmakers
who charge exorbitant amounts of up to
RO 1,000 per couple upon a successful
match. “I think since she is doing this
business for a good cause, she should
keep the prices affordable. After all, the
cost of wedding arrangements is huge,”
she lamented. Al Kharousi, a 27-yearold
man, opines that prospective brides
and grooms have their own reasons
and circumstances for depending on
matchmakers to find suitable spouses.
“For me, although I am still relatively
young, I stammer when speaking. I
proposed to many girls but with no luck.
So I sought the help of a matchmaker.
She is still searching for the right girl for
me.”