Rehla 404
It seems as if all I'm doing recently on this blog is apologizing. But I swear I have a valid reason! I have just finished with my mock examinations, and now I have the time to review some of the movies I have been watching. I have watched six in the past weekend, and I'm going to try to publish them all in the next few days. Rest assured, you will be getting plenty of content from me soon.
Rehla 404 [2024]
Starring: Mona Zaki, Mohamed Farag, Khaled El Sawi, Mohamed Mamdouh
Direction by Hani Khalifa
Language: Arabic
I would like to dedicate this review to my friend Gigi: had she not been late to our meeting at the mall, I would not have looked through the synopses of all the movies screening in the theatre. If I had not done that, I would not have found this movie. Given the fact that it is in Arabic, this movie would have totally slipped under my radar if I hadn't off-handedly read that plot. I am not usually one for thrillers, but after this movie, I may consider seeing some Arabic thrillers! Plenty of big-budget Egyptian ones screen at my local movie theatre.
The movie follows the plight of a woman, Ghada, who struggles to break free from the shackles of her past life as she tries to find the funding for her mother's hospital treatment. What struck me most about this movie was how the movie acted as a way of enforcing what some people would call the benefits of Islam. It is revealed that Ghada was a prostitute in her past life, but had put that behind her to become a woman driven by faith in a less taboo occupation. This movie detailed her struggle between her two lives, the tension between was is 'good' and what is 'bad'. She was often faced with significant challenges and yet never relented under the stress she was put under. It was actually quite interesting to watch as a Muslim: to see how a character is willing to stretch herself to such lengths to protect her religion, her connection with God, was, in my view, a truthful representation of what many Muslims stand for. There were many instances in the movie where Ghada delivers passionate monologues of how turning to God saved her, and how a turn to religion is the right choice for everyone. This movie was, despite being a thriller/drama, ultimately a moral tale. It is ultimately an almost God-like intervention which gets Ghada through her struggles and takes the movie to a positive ending.
There were, however, two problems I had with the movie, and both revolved around the plotline and how that progressed. The entire plotline revolves around Ghada's quest to find money for her mother's treatment. However, it is revealed at the start of the movie that she wants to distance herself from her mother, and that she didn't care about what happened to her. I was left wondering why a character who is portrayed as hating her mother would go through such lengths to save her. It could be an element of the moral story this movie was trying to tell: despite Ghada's challenges with her mother, she helped her, which can be seen as the 'right thing' to do. It was just a little confusing for me.
Speaking of confusion, another issue for me was the fact that the plotline was a little confusing. There were so many characters to keep track of, each with their own independent plotlines. The only constant was the main character, Ghada. As someone who watched this movie whilst also having to read subtitles, it was a little overwhelming to follow all of the separate plotlines and character stories whilst having to keep pace with the subtitles I was reading. I don't know whether the Arabic speakers watching this movie in the cinema with me would agree, but at some parts, trying to keep up with the quickly unravelling plot was very difficult.
Despite some of the issues I had with the movie, it was overall a pretty good watch. It was refreshing for me to the a movie which was not only in a genre I usually avoid seeing, but in a language I am not a native speaker of.
