Teta, Alf Marra

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 Teta, Alf Marra [2010]

Starring: Teta Fatima, Mahmoud Kabbour, Fatima el Ghoul, Eva Sayre

Direction by Mahmoud Kaabour 

Language: Arabic


After watching this, I finally understand what Fairuz is talking about when she sings 'Le Beirut'. All the vivacity and energy of Beirut came through the character of Teta in this lovely documentary. 

As is the case with any sort of biographical documentary, the character of Teta was so incredibly cute. Slightly judgmental, no nonsense, and sentimental, she really did capture my heart. And that is a credit to the filmmaker: he managed to so beautifully bring together all the elements of Teta's personality, capturing both her abrasive and lowkey sides. 

It is very rarely that I see love in a movie, where I can see how the filmmaker has involved themselves personally with the stories they try to create. This documentary had all of this and more. It helped that the filmmaker was directly related to the Teta in the documentary. As such, there was a slight feeling that this film was like a home movie: a little insight into the background behind a person. 

This was shown through how the documentary was actually produced and edited. The editing wasn't super sleek, not was it state-of-the-art in any sense. But the editing added a nice rustic touch to the narrative, which I liked. It felt far more authentic and close to home than other documentaries I have watched. 

Also, the tone of the documentary was just fantastic. Longer, more emotional scenes were offset by short, recorded clips of sarcastic comments by Teta. The documentary never seemed to heavy: it was pretty digestible throughout the duration because it was light-hearted, because it wasn't that intense. 

In fact, the documentary was quite thought provoking. For sure. My own grandmother lives in Pakistan, and lives to see her family. Much like Teta in the documentary, she too enjoys involving herself with the community, and speaking what is on her mind. This documentary made me realize that maybe I should be spending more time with her when I go to visit her: for I noticed so many layers of similarity between her and Teta. 

There were parts of the documentary where I felt kind of sleepy and bored. However, I'll chalk that up to a lack of sleep: I watched this after being awake for 19 hours of sleep. 

Don't do what I did. Don't watch this movie when your tired or bored, otherwise it is easy to get lost in the stream of sentimental themes discussed in this documentary. 

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