I have repeatedly written about the fact that most international productions fall into a slightly different category than simply – the cinema “from there” (from Africa, Asia, South America, etc.). Where international producers and Western capital come to the fore, cinema can really rarely be talked about as “from there”[1]. Sadly, it is no different in You Will Die At Twenty by Amjad Abu Alala.
The film by the born in the United Arab Emirates director, is a story about a boy who was given the eponymous prophecy shortly after birth – he will die on his 20th birthday. It is a story of growing up in a conservative, closed community in which blind faith refutes arguments of reason, pragmatism, as well as desires and feelings.
Muzamil lives in a reality that excludes him from his dreams, normal relations with his peers and the desire for an ordinary, peaceful life. His perspective will slowly change when he meets Suleiman, who traveled around the world before returning to his village. The sacred and the profane – both equally attractive and dangerous – will clash extremely strongly in the boy standing on the threshold of 20 years of age.
Amjad Abu Alala creates a portrait of a conservative society in which the hypocrisy is clearly visible and the threshold of freedom cannot be crossed so easily. The problem of the Sudanese artist is that instead of following the cause-and-effect chain, arming himself with a vigilant eye critical of fundamentalism and radicalism, he prefers to use the image and symbols. And these are symbols from the Western order – e.g. depicting the suffering of Muzamil’s mother by using Michelangelo’s Pieta visual key.
Not much will be left to viewers after a solidly constructed image that deviates from reality so much. The desire to appease the Western viewer is so great that the film is slowly beginning to grow into absurdity. What’s more, the creators are quite sloppy in abandoning the absorbent and democratically attractive themes in every cinema – e.g. Muzamil’s first contact with cinematography and watching movies with Suleiman. Something that had the potential to become the engine of change in the life of a boy burdened with the curse of faith in the end is just forsaken.
You Will Die At Twenty makes me feel sorry. After all, it doesn’t take much for
a story to gain value, to be something more than just a shy idea – it needed just
a pinch of social commitment standing firmly on earth. Meanwhile, production in
which as many as 6 countries were involved looks ultimately like an unpleasant,
empty shell. It is a show of possibilities of a talented director, instead of
opening our eyes to the world which the West is so afraid of.
[1] There are of course glorious exceptions, such as this year’s Senegalese Oscar candidate, Atlantic by Mati Diop. This film deftly uses contexts easy to catch by Europeans, and at the same time the atmosphere of local history and local (though universal) problems. In a word, it goes a step further from You Will Die At Twenty, and this is a huge difference in quality.
