I went to watch Captain Abu Raed last night, directly after I've finished work, I was to go with someone but I ended up there by myself, which was fine by me.
I booked the ticket to the 6:30 show, at 6:20 I was already inside and ready, popcorn, Pepsi and a bar pf chocolate that was served an extra with the medium sized popcorn.
It was I, and a group of 7 or 8 foreigners only, all ladies and old, people started coming, I noticed other foreigners as well, some couples, and some girl friends, we were like 30 in total! And I guessed well maybe because it's Wednesday and its 6:30. It didn’t matter much, the interesting thing here is that foreigners are interested enough to come and watch that movie more than Jordanians did, or at least that night! The movie had English subtitles of course.
So what did I think!
Well, I thought that foreigners might find it more interesting than Jordanians will, because its simple, where they are used to more complicated movies, while us " Jordanian" would be expecting more than just "simple", but for a 1st movie, It wasn't bad, you would enjoy it.
I felt the filming itself, the scenes, places were great, and I do believe it addressed several key issues that we as Jordanian know about and live with and/or witness on a daily basis.
The gap between east and west Amman was very obvious, Abu Raed, the district boys, the driver, Abu Raed apprentice and his neighbors on one hand and Nour, her mother, father, proposed grooms on the other.
The movie also addressed, street boys, those who sell gums and biscuits on the street to help their families.
Domestic violence, Murad's father who used to yell, and punish his wife and children, in the most disgusting way, literally the guy was a scum bag, he goes home each day drunk which eventually ended Abu Raed's life…
Society perceptions about janitors, even among the poor, it was obvious when the kids discovered that Abu Raed was a janitor and not a real Captain, once they saw him mopping the floor of the airport, one phrase was powerful, one of the kids said " Abu Raed wa7ad kathab, zabbal, shifnah belma6ar raki3 3ala rejlieh bemsa7 el2ard methel elkalb"
The movie also addressed the society view about girls, how they should get married the soonest, Nour family was doing social parties so that their girl can meet her future husband, a several trials where made by her father but she turned them all, now she's thirty, beautiful still but she starts questioning herself, a funny scene when she goes home and her father introduce her to an architect who came in with his father to see her, she was bold enough to leave them and walk out saying " ra7 a6okh 7ali"
Using the common language was very nice, I'm used to see the typical Jordanian language on Jordanian series which will sound more like another accent, but in there it wasn't, it was said exactly the way you hear it…
I have few remarks about the intro, I didn’t feel it was that strong, and as well as the closing scenes, the movie ended without you feeling it should end, a lot of issues were still hanging, you just feel it ended suddenly…
A final remark is the acting, it didn’t convince me much, it was ok, but I thought it can be better, a lot of sense were normal, especially on the facial expressions level, I didn’t read what the director was trying to show there.
Amman looked beautiful and so did sal6
The movie isn’t bad; I did like it at the end, more or less, I'm only saying it could have been better…. Maybe I'm a perfectionist, I donno.
Just go and see
