SLAM
Australia, 2018, 115 minutes, Colour.
Adam Bakri, Rachael Blake, Rebecca Breeds, Darina Al Joundi, Danielle Horvat, Abby Aziz, Damian Hill, Russell Dykstra, David Roberts, Nicholas Hope.
Directed by Patho Sen- Gupta.
This is a very disturbing film for an Australian audience. It focuses on contemporary issues in Sydney suburbs but which have all kinds of international and social consequences. It is well worth seeing.
The “SLAM� of the title (and you just have to to add an I for Islam) refers to poetry performance. An explanation may be useful: A poetry slam is a competition arts event, in which poets perform spoken word poetry before a live audience and a panel of judges. Culturally, poetry slams are a break with the past image many may have had of poetry as an elitist or rigid art form. Wikipedia
The film opens with a young woman, veiled, close-up, reciting intense poetry, criticisms of the status quo, revolutionary, fierce acknowledgement of the inhabitants of the land and denouncing colonialism. The poems will recur during the film and will provide an unanticipated climax at the end.
The young woman, Ammena (Danielle Horvat) disappears. Her mother, from Palestine originally, is distraught and phones her son, Tariq (called Ricky), Palestinian actor, Adam Bakri, who eventually goes to the police to report a missing person. We in the audience, having listened to the poems, immediately suspect that she might have joined a radicalised group or even gone overseas to support Islamic State.
On the one hand, the film is about the search for a missing woman, the stance that a sympathetic policewoman, Joanne (Rachael Blake) takes and acts on. Later, we find that she has had her own suffering in connection with Middle East violence and is estranged from her husband. But, given contemporary attitudes, fear of terrorists, policies to make Australia safe, Border Force issues, we probably share the initial presumption that Ameena has left the country.
On the other hand, one of the main effects of the film is to share the experiences of the rest of the family, of Tariq who has married locally, has a daughter and his wife is expecting their second child. They have established a business, a cafe, building up custom. And, Tariq’s wife and family are completely accepting – though disturbed by the police and the media, hiring a lawyer friend for Tariq to hold a press conference and explaining his situation.
The police intervene and Tariq taken in and interrogated as, at least, a person of interest, presumption that he is somehow involved in radicalism. The media, relentless, camp outside his suburban house ready with cameras and microphones at the slightest indication of action or even Tariq and his family opening the door.
While Joanne wants to keep investigating the disappearance as that of a missing woman, her police superiors, national agencies, want to act with immediate caution and suspicious presumptions.
There is a solution to the mystery of Ameena’s disappearance. But, the important impact of the film is on the treatment of Tariq and his family, aspects of Australia’s xenophobia, of response to wars and terrorism in the Middle East, touches of paranoia, a plea for acceptance and understanding rather than presumptions of guilt.
Interestingly, the film was written and directed by Patho Sen-Gupta? who was born in Mumbai and grew up there, working in the Bollywood film industry, later moving to France where he worked in films for a decade, his partner then coming to teach at the University of Western Sydney and his moving to Australia – obviously absorbing the atmosphere of his adopted country.
1. The title? The poetry and performance? By Ameena? By Tariq at the end?
2. The poetry itself, performance, the themes, critique, anger, revolution? Indigenous people in the poet? Colonial attitudes?
3. Sydney, the suburbs, homes and streets, police officers, the cafe, musical score?
4. Introduction to Ameena, the focus on her, the hijab and is long, the Palestinian background, the range of her texts, the impact, her delivery and performance? Her waiting outside, phone call and texting? Her disappearance?
5. Tariq, called Ricky, his marriage to Sally, his daughter, Sally’s pregnancy? Their life, their love for each other, establishing the cafe, working there, customers? Sharing?
6. Tariq, the phone call from his mother, her anxiety, the Palestinian background? Ameena’s disappearance? The flashbacks in Tariq’s mind, the torture sequences? The migrants from the Middle East, the alien experience, acceptance or not, questions about language? Tariq going to the police, giving the information, Ameena listed as a missing person?
7. The background of the Middle East, Isis, the downing of the Australian pilot, his being paraded, executed? The sequences on the television in the news? Intimidating for Australian viewers, anger at the executions?
8. Joanna, her work in the police office, her tensions, her being on probation, the gradual revelation of the death of her son, her drinking? Ricky talking with her, her making notes, sympathetic, going home, weary, the shower, the appearances of her son, Shane and the broken relationship, his waiting for her, inside the house, his assault, talking about his needs, the sexual violation and violence, his grief and anger?
9. Ameena, her background, studies, missing? The response of the police? The response of the agencies? Suspicions, the atmosphere of the downed pilot, the media and the hounding of the family, encamped in the street?
10. The effect on Tariq, the family being besieged, the effect on his wife, her wanting to stay, his urging her to go to her family? Her father, his arrival, packing, anxieties, going out to the press crowd?
11. The effect on Ricky, the police interrogations, his catching up with his friend who was in prison, the clash, punching each other? Is wearing a hooded, identifying himself to get into the house? Alone at home?
12. Sally’s father, his concern, the lawyer friend, the discussions, the eventual press conference, Tariq’s disclaimer of all responsibility and knowledge?
13. Sally and her family, the meals, comfortable with Tarik as a son-in-law?
14. Sally, stalled in the car, the rain, her being upset, the tests of the baby, joy?
15. The birth, the celebration, everybody together, racial tolerance and acceptance?
16. Joanna, coming with the police, the news? Scenes of her searching, finding the body, the mutilations? In the flashbacks explaining Ameena is an abduction?
17. Ricky, reciting the poetry, the family all there, his mother, Sally, her family, and Joanna?
18. The challenge themes for the contemporary Australian audience?
