Watched a Syrian movie today. Weirdly, this movie isn't even stated on IMDB, neither is the actor/director Doureid Laham (which is one of the most prominent names in the Arabic movie scene).
Anyway, The film was made in 1984, when the war in the middle-east was at its peak, and all the Arabic nations were facing internal segregations, after the failure of the "United Arab Republic" in 1971 and the first occupation of Israel to an Arabic capital (Beirut) in 1982. However, Arabs in these days were still under the slogan of "One History, One Identity, One Nation", even though borders were created daily to separate this so called unified "nation".
Comes this movie,
The Border (1983) by Doureid Laham, a Syrian politically engaged comedian, that has always showed the serious contradictions ruling this part of the world. In this film, Laham plays the role of Abdel Wadoud, a citizen that believes in the unison of his nation, and has went in a trip to discover the lands of his country. During his trip, and the many borders, he loses his passport and gets stuck between two border checks. A bit like in
The Terminal, the protagonist will try to make a life out of his absurd situation, while still in the hope of returning to his true Home.
I really liked it, it has some very good moments. The dark humour is very subtle and stringent at the same time. It also has a hint of Monty Python comedy. Plus, the music written by Samir Helmi is very nice.
The best quality about it is though, the movie never falls in the melodramatic moments, while telling the tragic story of the stranger in his own country.