Ehky Ya Shahrazad ( احكي يا شهرزاد --Tell me oh Scheherazade)

Last week I saw Ehky Ya Shahrazad ( احكي يا شهرزاد --Tell me oh Scheherazade) (Starring Mona Zaki ) – easily the best contemporary Egyptian movie I have seen. Hebba, the main character, is a talk show host who must choose between keeping her ratings high and jeopardizing her 2^nd husband's journalism career. She represents the privileged, according to a review of the film. Despite her earnest efforts to depoliticize her show, personal stories emerge that shock and stimulate the Egyptian audience more than her overtly political shows ever did. In turn, media executives heighten the pressure they are exerting on Hebba's husband. Fearing reprisal (in the form of a denied promotion) Hebba's husband pursues gentle and violent methods to persuade her to sacrifice her career for his.

This is the first Egyptian movie I've seen that addresses abortion. In addition, the theme of injustice and violence against women is approached from more than the traditional 2-dimensional angle of women as victims of patriarchy. Each of the three stories approaches a different socio-economic level—working class, middle class and upper class. In addition, there are multiple layered thematic dyads—public and private oppression, intellectual and political oppression, and social and sexual oppression.

We experience the story of a woman who served a full 15 year sentence for murdering a man who betrayed her and her 2 sisters. Another story exposes a government minister's professional scheme to extort still fertile spinsters from wealthy families out of money by impregnating them during the engagement and insisting he is sterile, thus damaging their honor. Yet another story reveals a chic woman who clerks in a ritzy cosmetic store, but dons a head scarf and monochrome abaya before heading to her poor neighborhood on the metro.

I liked the film not because it was better than others, but because of the frankness of each story and the reduction in melodrama that too frequently accompanies many Egyptian films (especially comedies—so much shouting and crying!). A critique of the film in Arabic provided a fun new Arabic phrase that I will index for frequent future use: بصورة دعتنى إلى الملل—it was inviting me to be bored. In addition, an interview with both the lead actress, the writer ( وحيد حامد –Wahid Hamid) and the director ( يسرى نصر الله –Yousry Nasrallah).

Also, I would like to post a tribute to Dr. MTH for his insights about traveling and language learning. For his benefit and mine I will continue broadly extrapolating political/economic theories from small personal incidents like tripping on the sidewalk.