‘Harka': Film Review | Cannes 2022
-
Loading... - Pamela Anderson
- 19 May 2022
- 294 Views
- 0 Like
- 0 Comment
His family and friends called him Basbous because of his cheerful disposition and sense of humor. In postmortem interviews, they would note how much he loved to laugh. To the world, Basbous was Mohamed Bouazizi, a 27-year-old street vendor whose self-immolation ignited a movement. Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution, part of the historic Arab Spring, was borne of economic discontent, frustration with corruption and lack of opportunity. It shifted power from the political elite to the people, inspiring Tunisians to wrest control of their fates.
Change is a slow process, though, and in the years after Bouazizi’s death, Tunisia did not bear significant marks of difference. Unemployment remained high. People still struggled to make ends meet. Many risked death to cross the Mediterranean, searching for opportunities elsewhere. Harka, Lotfy Nathan’s smart but capricious narrative debut, is set against this tumultuous backdrop. The film, which premiered in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard sidebar, is a steady, unintrusive observation of life after the Arab Spring.
Ali (Adam Bessa), a young Tunisian, represents the alchemic desperation resulting from broken promises and shattered dreams. At the beginning of the film, we see him bottling and organizing the contraband gasoline he hawks to survive. The meticulous sequence (the DP is Maximilian Pittner) is soundtracked by Eli Keslzler’s throbbing music composition. A particularly arresting shot of Ali facing a concrete wall as he dejectedly lights a cigarette is hard to shake. His smooth back shimmers an almost iridescent blue, announcing Harka’s gritty and temperamental mood.
Ali lives a spare life. He squats in an abandoned construction site and mostly keeps to himself. He sells gasoline at the same place every day and saves what he can. He hopes to cross the Mediterranean, to find work and a different life in Europe. Occasionally, he hangs out with his always-scheming friend Omar (Najib Allagui).
Ali’s dreams of escape shrivel, however, when he learns that his father has died. The news forces the brooding young man to return home, where he stays to take care of his younger sisters Alyssa (Salima Maatoug) and Sarra (Ikbal Harbi). The spirit of that steely opening slips away, replaced by a more sentimental one.
That shift is brief, however. Harka darts between genre conventions: One minute it feels like a thriller, the next a heart-wrenching drama, another a psychological study. When the risky mix-and-match works — and sometimes it doesn’t — the results are emotionally potent. Nathan is fascinated by desperation, the kind that roots itself in the mind and soul. What lengths will a desperate person go to in order to survive? That is the essential, thrilling question coursing through Harka.
Ali’s desperation breeds a painful solitude underscored by his initially graceless homecoming. His tense relationship with his brother Skander (Khaled Brahem) and the stilted ones with his sisters give their early interactions a perfunctory sheen; this is a family of strangers bound by obligation. Bessa rightly and confidently plays up Ali’s self-conscious sulking with penetrating stares into the distance, dramatic pauses, the occasional pursed lip and slumped shoulders. Read More...
