“KORAN BY HEART,” DOC ABOUT MUSLIM CHILD PRODIGIES, CHARMS TRIBECA
The highlight of this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, for me, has been Greg Barker’s remarkable documentary “Koran by Heart” (HBO, 8/1/11, trailer), which was greeted with a standing ovation — something New York audiences don’t offer easily — following its world premiere on Sunday. Like so many other docs also championed by Sheila Nevins, HBO’s veteran president of documentary and family programming, it is informative, quirky, and deeply moving, and it introduces Western audiences to a cultural phenomenon with which few will already be acquainted. The film’s subject? An international Koran-recitation competition in Cairo and its 100 contestants, all of whom are children, some as young as seven, who have memorized Islam’s 600-page holy book and are challenged to both accurately and melodically recite passages from it on-demand.
The film principally chronicles the experiences of three charismatic 10-year-olds, from the time they learn of their acceptance into the competition, through their epic journeys to Cairo, through their receptions upon returning home: Djamil, a boy from Senegal whose father is the village imam (and who travels to the competition on his own); Nabiollah, a boy from Tajikistan whose delivery drives grown men to tears (but who can neither read nor write); and Rifdha, a girl from the Maldives whose inner drive and determination might top them all (but whose fundamentalist father wants her to be a housewife). Along the way, the kids experience various trials and tribulations, and even become mini-celebrities, with people clammoring to kiss their cheeks, take their pictures, and even have them recite for political leaders (including former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted from power as part of the “Arab Awakening” that began after filming concluded). It is a sight to see.
Wisely, the film also incorporates talking-head interviews with Salem Abdel-Galil, an Egyptian imam and TV personality who is the principal organizer of the Cairo competition, who does a fine job of clarifying the importance to Muslims of both the Koran and Koran recitation, and of explaining how his event — which features boys and girls, welcomes Arabs and non-Arabs, and incorporates modern technology into its infrastructure — was deliberately created to promote a moderate form of Islam around the world. Whether his vision can actually compete with hard-line fundamentalism and terrorism in the Arab world is, perhaps, the great question of our time, but it’s nice to see someone passionately preaching it.
Kudos to Barker — an American whose knowledge and curiosity about the rest of the world was evident in his TV work as a writer/director/producer for “Frontline” (2000-2010) and in his last film, the Oscar short-listed doc “Sergio” (2009) — for pursuing this story and telling it so sensitively.
Photo: Rifdha, one of the contestants featured in “Koran by Heart.” Credit: HBO.
Tags: Greg Barker, Hosni Mubarak, Koran by Heart, Salem Abdel-Galil, Sheila Nevins, Tribeca