The Tribeca Film Festival selections The Reluctant Fundamentalist and The Patience Stone tell completely different stories, yet their shared focus on a Muslim protagonist makes for a unique festival pairing. The Reluctant Fundamentalist centers on a highly educated Pakistani man who becomes a hotshot management consultant before 9/11 changes his perspective on what it means to be an outsider in America. The Patience Stone takes place in an unnamed country in the Middle East, and centers on one woman's survival in a war-torn region. Yes, both lead characters are Muslim, but most of the similarities stop there.
Mira Nair's The Reluctant Fundamentalist tries very hard to make you feel the anger of its protagonist Changez (Riz Ahmed). His dream in Pakistan is to go to America, where hard work is rewarded with success. As he makes it into the Wall Street financial elite, however, 9/11 happens. He's branded as an outsider. Even his slick suit and briefcase are not insulation enough to prevent him from being strip-searched at the airport or for his artist girlfriend (Kate Hudson) to create an offensive art installation that he feels just furthers stereotypes about Muslims. People who have read the 2007 book by Mohsin Hamid will find the movie to be a different experience. Plot elements have been changed to make the story more cinematic, although the experience of seeing the world through the eyes of one of the persecuted remains. The recent attacks at the Boston Marathon have already revived prejudices against Muslims and made many on guard about an ethnicity that hadn't even been on most people's radar. The Reluctant Fundamentalist goes a long way towards explaining how generalized prejudices and black-and-white thinking can further radicalize people on both sides.
Forgetting about larger political implications, Atiq Rahimi's The Patience Stone focuses on the struggles of one woman (the Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani) during a time of unrest in her dusty Middle Eastern neighborhood. She tends to her husband, who appears to be in a coma after a bullet struck him in the neck, by giving him IV drips. Meanwhile, competing militias fight in the streets. She can't carry her husband out of their dwelling, so she ends up going back and forth between her dangerous apartment and the safety of her aunt's house, where she has spirited her two children.
The thing is, she actually hates her unloving husband, though not enough to leave him and let him die. Instead, she unloads all her pains and the untold drama of her life. Her reminisces often lead to flashbacks, slowly giving the viewer a more fully realized view of the woman and what she has been up against her whole life. If Reluctant Fundamentalist engenders anger, Patience Stone focuses more on the sorrow of injustice. The movie also deserves immense praise for its cinematography. Instead of feeling claustrophobic, the interiors are lit gorgeously with plenty of light coming in through the windows, recalling Vermeer's paintings of his female subjects indoors. As the woman talks and talks, she peels back layers of herself as an onion. At first glance, we're presented with a dutiful Muslim wife. By the end of movie, we fully understand the tradeoffs and sacrifices made in order to maintain that veneer.
Both The Reluctant Fundamentalist and The Patience Stone will be headed to theatres soon after their stop at Tribeca. The Reluctant Fundamentalist, which was picked up by IFC Films at the Toronto Film Festival, is coming out this Friday. Also a Toronto pickup, The Patience Stone is releasing through Sony Pictures Classics on August 14.
No comments:
Post a Comment