Nezouh
Life in war-torn Syria becomes the basis of what has been described as a feminist fairytale.
Although the filmmaker Soudade Kaadan was born in France, she is Syrian and grew up in Damascus. Given that her country has been caught up in civil war for well over a decade, it is hardly surprising that much of her work reflects that fact including her two feature films. The first of these, The Day I Lost My Shadow, was set in the early stages of the war in an area just outside Damascus and now we have Nezouh which takes place in the city itself. The film opens with a realistic portrayal of life under constant bombardment as experienced by one particular household. Two grown-up children of the family have moved away, but 14-year-old Zeina, played by the debutant actress Hala Zein, lives there with her parents, Mutaz (Samer al Masri) and Hala (Kinda Alloush).
At the start the film shows them getting by but with very limited electricity and water and short of food. Their plight becomes worse still when a bomb blows a hole in the ceiling with two more in one of their walls. No wonder, then, that the remaining citizens are being encouraged by the authorities to leave the city. But, while Hala as a mother is all in favour of this, Mutaz is set against it. Although Kaadan’s film is being released here under its original title, a translation of it is offered on screen as soon as the title appears: "nezouh", we are told, is a word relating to the displacement of soul, water and people. It is a firm resistance to being displaced that drives Mutaz, an obstinacy arguably linked to his need to bolster his own sense of authority. Believable as the film’s opening scenes are, the one element that can seem somewhat exaggerated here is the extent to which Mutaz makes light of the bomb damage to their home insisting that he is in control of the situation and can manage perfectly well.
The fact that we currently see daily news of terrible civilian suffering in Ukraine and Gaza doesn't lessen the impact of what the people in Syria have gone through and are suffering still since it makes it all the easier for us to identify with what Soudade Kaadan is seeking to portray here. But even if one feels deeply sympathetic to her endeavour, that can't overcome the fact that in offering her own individual take on this moving situation she moves into a style of storytelling that, linked to magic realism, will not appeal to all.
Despite the initial realism of its telling her story soon takes on a tone that is in conflict with that. Once the bomb has left a hole in the ceiling above Zeina’s bed she can climb through it and on to the roof to meet the teenage boy named Amer (Nizar Alani) who lives nearby. The way in which he drops a rope for her to ascend is shot so to make it feel unreal and one wonders initially if one should see this as akin to a dream sequence. Amer is soon creating a rooftop film show for her and when their talk refers to what might be possible once the war ends Zeina indicates that she wants to catch fish. Later Amer will oblige by turning up with a fishing rod and the two of them will pretend to fish on the roof. This happens later and comes after the earlier rooftop rendezvous has ended with Zeina seen falling back literally into space (that she claims to have fallen off her bed adds to the sense that a dream element is intended).
However, as the film goes on, it becomes a back-and-forth between the naturalistic and the fanciful. A crisis point occurs when Mutaz wants to marry Zeina off to a soldier and Hala is so hostile to this that she walks out taking her daughter with her. There's a hint that Hala’s own marriage when she was very young is something that she regrets and these elements critical of patriarchy seem to take us back to a more realistic tone. Yet what then follows becomes increasingly stylised as Hala wanders around the devastated city with Zeina. They have difficulty finding their way as they seek a tunnel that leads to safety but both Amer and Mutaz manage to find them which is convenient for the story. Earlier there has been talk of how any movie about Syria is likely to include killing and one can sympathise with Soudade Kaadan in wanting to find some new approach which avoids that even as her film illustrates the tragic circumstances that continue to exist in Syria. However, her extreme tonal contrasts result in what is for me a film so incoherent in style that it fails to resonate and the failure is all the more evident because the piece closes by providing a happy ending that feels inconsistent with the portrait of Mutaz that has been built up. Nezouh is a film which is well photographed, is patently sincere and has an able cast (Hala Zein may not be a great child actress but this newcomer is certainly good). All of that counts for something and admirers of magic realism may adjust to the mix in a way that I could not. Indeed, the concept behind Nezouh is one that really does not convince me and prevents the film from working.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Hala Zein, Kinda Alloush, Samer al Masri, Nizar Alani, Nabil Aboualih, Samer Seyyid Ali, Sonia Bittarova, Darina Al Joundi.
Dir Soudade Kaadan, Pro Marc Bordure, Soudade Kaadan and Yu-Fai Suen, Screenplay Soudade Kaadan, Ph Hélène Louvart and Burak Kanbir, Pro Des Osman Özcan, Ed Soudade Kaadan and Nelly Quettier, Music Rob Lane and Rob Manning, Costumes Selin Sozen.
Berkeley Media Group/KAF Production/Agat Films & Cie/BFI/Film4/Canal+/Ciné+-Modern Films.
103 mins. Syria/UK/France/Qatar. 2022. UK Rel: 3 May 2024. Cert. 12A.
