Tarik El Hob (2001) aka The Road To Love

Tarik El Hob (2001)
Director: Rémi LangeScenario: Rémi Lange, Antoine ParlebasGenre: DramaCountry: FranceYear: 2001Duration: 70 min
Rating: 7.3/10


Actors: Karim Tarek, Sihem Benamoune, Abdellah Taia, Mustapha Khaddar, Farid Tali, Mehdi Jouhar, Roschdy El Glaoui, Riyad Echahi, Zakariya Gouram

Description:
Koliko ste upoznati sa homoseksualizmom u arapskim zemljama? Da li je arapska kultura tolerantna prema homoseksualcima ?
U nekoliko arapskih zemalja u kojima sam boravio sam primjetio da se muškarci drže za ruku dok hodaju ulicama. Bilo mi je čudno kako tako javno pokazuju privrženost. Privrženost da, ali na njihov način. Kada se dva druga drže za ruku , ne znači da su i pederi. Oni su naprosto prijatelji.
Inače arapi za sebe vole da kažu da su macho jebači. Kod njih nije sramota ako imaš sex sa muškarcem, al pod uslovom da si ti taj koji jebe. Ako dopustiš da budeš pojeban to je već sramota.

Iz ovog polu dokumentarnog filma možete otkriti ponešto o pederizmu u arapskom svjetu.
Karim, student sociologije živi u prijestonici arapa - u Parizu sa djevojkom Sihem.
Nakon jedne emisije o pederima u Egiptu, Karim odluči da snimi istraživački dokumentarac o pederizmu medju arapima.

I tako ide od jednog do drugog pedera, intervjuiše ih, bilježi njihove nesuvisle pederske priče, snima sve o njihom načinu života.

Sve dok ne upozna stjuarta Ferida, kada počinje da mjenja mišljenje o ljubavi medju muškarcima.
Sa njim odlazi u Maroko, gdje nastavlja sa snimanjima. Zapanjujuća je priča o pederima medju arapima. Jedan šeik je po nekim pričama imao harem muškaraca. (Nadam se da ih nije kastrirao!)
Trebam li vam reći da je Karim na kraju dobio prsten od Ferida?
Poučan film , koji će vam razbitii predrasude o arapima! ( ukoliko ih imate!)

The story of an Arab student in Paris who discovers his homosexuality while working on a video project for his sociology class, Rémi Lange's ''Road to Love'' doesn't add much to the coming-out genre, as it has been established in countless Sundance competition films and made-for-television movies.
The student, Karim (Karim Tarek), is living in a seventh-floor walk-up with his doting girlfriend, Sihem (Sihem Benamoune), when he decides to make a documentary about homosexuality in the Arab world for his class at the Sorbonne. (Term papers, it seems, are a thing of the past.)
He tries to track down some gay Muslim men to interview, first by hanging around in front of a gay tea shop, then by placing an advertisement in a newspaper. All of Karim's respondents make advances toward him, provoked by his willowy frame and large, expressive eyes, which Sihem likens to the great, yearning orbs of Vermeer's ''Girl With a Pearl Earring.''

Karim is disturbed at first, but before long he begins to feel flattered by all the attention. He strikes up a friendship with Farid (Riyad Echahi), a serious young flight attendant who puts him in touch with gay Muslims in Paris and elsewhere, all the while incubating his own crush on Karim. As Karim spends more and more time with Farid, Sihem starts getting anxious, as well she might.

It's clear where ''The Road to Love'' is headed after its first few minutes, and the feature, crudely shot with what seems to be an amateur video camera, has few stylistic compensations. But some interesting reporting enters on the edges of the familiar story line, as Karim uncovers the complicated and often contradictory attitudes toward homosexuality in Islam.

Homosexual relationships, he finds, are tolerated in many Muslim cultures as an outlet for pent-up desires that must otherwise wait until marriage. There was even one relatively modern culture, centered in the Siwa oasis in Egypt, where marriage ceremonies between men were performed, though those marriages dissolved when the time for grown-up, reproductive coupling arrived. Only passive homosexuality, Farid explains to Karim, is considered truly shameful. Sex, in other words, is power, in which a sense of domination counts for everything -- not, alas, a notion exclusive to the Arab world.
But as much as you would like to linger beneath the shady palms of Siwa, the film eventually returns to its well-worn dramatics. ''Maybe,'' Karim says of his documentary project, ''I chose it unconsciously to reveal my preference for men.''
Under the circumstances, -- Karim is flying off to Marrakesh with Farid for a romantic weekend -- that does look like a distinct possibility.

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