The plot of the film revolves around a thirteen -year -old boy, Noor (Omar Sharif), who lives in a remote village in Egypt, whom his classmates call Amasha because of his poor eyesight and thick glasses. Amasha suffers from two things in her life. Her parents, who appear to be dead, are raised by her aunt Fawzia (Duniya Maher), who lives with her and her children, and her husband Hanafi (Ahmed Khaled Saleh), a drug addict who beating him up if he doesn’t give it up. money, which he has. Added to this difficulty is the school, whose students and teachers treat Nur with extreme cruelty, cruelty, ridicule and bullying. The story is narrated-as viewers will later notice-“Shabeh” or “Al-Maraqabi” (Majid Al-Kadwani), a man wearing a ghost dress and living in a house located next to the Noor School. This house is called a ghost house. The haunted house, inhabited by boats, instilled fear in all the inhabitants of the village, and he built this fear and flew away to live alone in complete isolation and without interference, except the rare case of some children playing football next to the wall. his abandoned house.
Of course, the story started when “Nur” was playing ball with her teammates and the ball accidentally landed in a haunted house. Soon, the children (there are many references in the film to children bullying each other) are forced to take a ball from a scary and frightening ghost house. “Al-Maraqabi/Ghost” appears to Noor, who is terrified and loses her “mirror” there, but ironically she notices that the “ghost” is wearing Zanouba, a famous brand of cheap plastic slippers. Nur asked her aunt as she was “washing”: Do ghosts/goblins wear “Zenuba”? “Never,” he replied, “because orcs have goat legs.”
The boy was brilliant and soon decided to go on a journey to find his mirror while exploring the place and its inhabitants. This is where the real story of the film begins: the vague relationship of the “ghost” and the clever kid who is called the cheater all the time in the film. Noor soon becomes friends with the ghost, introduces her to music teacher Jihan (Ruby) and discovers that she is a famous person and she has a daughter, Farida (Asmaa Abu Al-Yazid), whom she left many years ago. back. But the best thing about the film is the idea of “Beyond the Method”, from which it took its name: these are the stories that Al-Maraqabi told to young Noor. He told him significant historical stories: from the words of Pharaoh Akhenaten, from the words of Salah ad-Din al-Ayyubi, from the words of Muhammad Ali Pasha. Most of these stories discuss the fact that history has not written about these characters: Akhenaten, when he wanted to worship the one God, did not specify who this god was, Salah ad-Din was not a handsome or handsome knight, and Muhammad Ali Pasha was not fit to rule Egypt, because Egypt was to be ruled by one of his sons, and not by a “conqueror-conqueror”.
These stories, presented by the film in the most beautiful and kind way, make up a story of human depth, especially since Al-Maraqbi and Noor created this very amazing relationship, because they didn’t know how. talk to anyone, even to themselves. . At some point, they came to the conclusion that they were the same type: “liars” and failed even to lie. This sad discovery makes them angry with themselves at some point, but we soon discover that what happens right away is not the end of things, and that there are always hidden surprises without knows. One can talk for a long time about the history of the film and the self-discovery that vanity passes before the film reaches its end, and its complexity: what is obvious and obvious is not the truth: a ghost is not a ghost, but a “sighted” child is more visible than visible children and adults. Children are not the angels that most dramas, stories and novels try to do. Children bully each other every day, wherever they gather. Bullying and intimidation lead to dangerous and sad situations, some of which result in children refusing to return to school or playgrounds. In some cases, it has even led to the suicide of some children. The film revealed this idea, and presented it without drowning in it. At the same time, people’s attachment to the supernatural approach, the child’s interaction with an illusory ghost, seeks the whole village of his “blessing” and the blessing of his “ghost”: his teachers or even the principal. the school is no exception to this rule. Only the music teacher doesn’t ask for anything. He is the only one Noor feels that she can recognize as a ghost because he is the only one who has not asked for anything for himself, but what he asked for is to “fix the broken school piano”. Another thing close to the film is the relationship between truth and falsehood. The lie that Noor started, we soon realize that Al-Maraqbi is training and he is still doing it while acting as a ghost. Sometimes he was a famous ghost who lied to people, and then became a ghost in a small village, on his own volition. Lies that the media and regimes still use to present the wrong picture of what has happened and is happening. Of course, there’s a point that can be considered one of the film’s mistakes, which is an attempt to take the experience of failure and bring it back to the fore as the worst thing ever, and they often talk about it. , because that stage-no matter how severe it was-had taken place and was the beginning of a new stage, and without it there would have been no crossing of the Bar-Lev line and the return of Sinai to Egypt. This kind of crying nostalgia is found in many Egyptian writings, about defeat as the end of the world. There is no doubt that the song “Uday al-Nahar” by Abdel Halim Hafez, written by the great Egyptian poet Salah Jahin, is the most unique of those works that served as the “theme” for this spirit, some of which we have. seen. in the details of the film.
Director Amr Salama’s skill lies in the choice of actors.
In terms of performance, it can be said that the skill of director Salama depends on the choice of actors to act with skill that can be considered the role of the season for them. Majed El-Kidwani is-and may not be known by many-one of Egypt’s best performers, though he still hasn’t achieved his share of fame. Al-Kidwani’s real beginning was in Tear of Ent (2009), when he performed as a wish-granting imp in front of Ahmed Makki, even though he was upside down and confused. Later, Al-Kidwani returned and proved his worth in In Front of the Summer Crowd (2015), although the latter did not achieve the desired success. Al-Kidwani is a rare coin among actors who do not rely on his looks, but on a high game, on the ability to incorporate image, and this is his merit. As has been the norm since her spectacular appearance at Ramadan Kareem many years ago, Ruby still maintains her special and stand-alone performance far removed from the “temptation” she introduced in her lyric clips in the beginning. Ruby’s performance in the film seems soft and calm, giving her the role of a level-headed and loving elementary school teacher. The same applies to Asmaa Abu al-Yazid in terms of balanced work. After her stunning role in Eugenie Nights (2018, directed by Hani Khalifa and written by Samaa Abdel-Khalek and Engi Kassem), Asmaa never looked back and is set to become one of the stars of her generation. Omar Sharif on the other hand performed with great skill worthy of the elders. Omar met people after this film from the TV series Finding Ola (directed by Hadi Al-Baguri, written by Ghad Abdel-Al and Maha Al-Wazir), shown by the Netflix network, starring the Tunisian star and Hend Sabri. In the film, the appearance of actor Ahmed Amin as a guest in two short scenes is a nice surprise, but they are enough to convince Amin of his performance skills, especially after his work on the championship series that Gumm Island (directed by Hussein Al -Manbawi and written by Abdul Rahim Kamal) during the last season of Ramadan.
* “Out of procedure” in “Witness”
Source: Al-Akhbar
