Yalla Parkour is not your average sports documentary thanks in no small part to it being primarily set in Gaza (Film review)

 Areeb Zuaiter at a post-screening Q&A at the

Hong Kong International Film Festival 

Yalla Parkour (Sweden-Qatar-Saudi Arabia-Palestine, 2024)

- Areeb Zuaiter, director and scriptwriter

- Part of the HKIFF's Documentary Competition program 

In the past year or so, I've viewed a number of films about Palestine and Palestinians -- including The Dupes (1972) at last year's Hong Kong International Film Festival, Five Broken Cameras (2011) at last year's Hong Kong Asian Film Festival, and No Other Land (2024), shortly after it won the Best Documentary Oscar at this year's Academy Awards.  With its focus on parkour enthusiasts, Yalla Parkour might look like it'd be more lightweight than the other works.  But what with the situation in Palestine being what it is, and has been for years and decades now, this documentary offering does end up covering subject matter that is more serious and downbeat than what one would expect a work about an athletic activity to be.  

 

And this all the more so when one throws in the not insignificant matter of its filmmaker, Areeb Zuaiter, being the offspring of exiled Palestinians, one of whom is said to have lost her smile after never being able to see the sea off Palestine again in her lifetime.  Now living in the United States after time spent in Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Jordan, Areeb Zuaiter worried that she had lost her connection with Gaza upon the death of her mother before she gets to know Ahmed Matar, a young man whose videos show him and his friends executing parkour moves in various parts of the Gaza Strip.  

 

Communicating via phone and online conversations, Areeb and Ahmed talk about parkour, his friends, his family, the places that he and his friends play in and have converted into their playgrounds (which include a ruined airport, a still intact high rise building, a cemetery, and wall by the sea) and, also, her memories of Gaza and very different life thousands of miles away.  The first video of Ahmed's that Areeb came across on the internet was one that showed young men doing parkour against a backdrop of explosions/bombings.  By the time they first get to talking in 2015, one of the young men, Ahmed tells her, has already left Palestine.  

 

As Yalla Parkour unfolds, we learn that Ahmed aspires to do the same.  Therein lies an irony of this self-reflexive, sometimes wistful and, ultimately, bittersweet documentary: that it is made by a third culture kid who romanticizes her ties to, and memories of, Palestine but whose protagonist is a Palestinian whose videos of him and his friends at play clearly showed and revealed how damaged and ruined much of his homeland already was years before Israel went ahead and pulverized Gaza in retaliation after the events of October 7th, 2023. 

 

It might also be seen as pretty telling that Ahmed's chosen form of play -- one that involves traversing obstacles that come in many forms -- is fraught with very real dangers that can physically hurt and maim, even kill.  Some might see it as showing how cheap life can seem for Palestinians.  Alternatively, one can see Ahmed and his friends' love of parkour as a form of defiance: not just a dicing with death on their own terms but also a determination to overcome fear.  And a seeking of pure joy and genuine sense of accomplishments, not just reckless thrills, against the odds.

 

One of the best things Areeb Zuaitar has done with Yalla Parkour is give Ahmed a voice and platform -- and, also, show him, his friends and his family to be the kind of people who love life, have dreams, care for others and, well, are entirely human.  This may sound like damning the documentary with faint praise.  But in a world where there are folks who don't want to accept that Palestinians are fellow humans who deserve to live, and live freely and with dignity, this is no small accomplishment.    

 

My rating for this film: 7.0

The Dupes is a classic of Arab cinema that is a painful but important watch (Film review)

  

One of a number of pro-Palestinian stickers spotted 

in Hong Kong in recent months

 

The Dupes (Syria, 1972) 

- Tewfik Saleh, director and co-scriptwriter (with Ghassan Kanafani)

- Starring: Mohamed Kheir-Halouani, Abderrahman Alrahy, Bassan Lotfi Abou-Ghazala, Saleh Kholoki 

- Part of the Hong Kong International Film Festival's Restored Classics program

 

Going into the screening of this (restored in 2023) classic of Arab cinema, I knew that -- as per the title of the fourth segment of 2019 Hong Kong film Memories to Choke On, Drinks To Wash Them Down -- It's Not Going to Be Fun.  And, actually, in view of what's been happening in Gaza for some six months now, The Dupes may be an even more upsetting watch in early 2024 because this 1972 film shows how much, and longer, Palestinians have been suffering than many people realize. 

 

Set in Iraq but actually shot in Syria by Egyptian director Tewfik Saleh, The Dupes had its world premiere at Tunisia's Carthage Film Festival in the same year that its co-scriptwriter, Palestinian author-politician Ghassan Fayiz Kanafan, was assassinated, in Beirut.  Kanafan also wrote Men in the Sun, the 1962 novel that The Dupes' story is adapted from.  And both the novel and the film tell the story of three Palestinian refugees seeking to travel from the refugee camps in Iraq, where they cannot find work, to Kuwait, where they hope to make the kind of money it is impossible for them to do in the refugee camps.  

 

The oldest and first of the three to be introduced in The Dupes is Abou Keïss (portrayed by Mohamed Kheir-Halouani), an illiterate farmer who went through the 1948 Nakba (ethnic cleansing of Palestinians) and still pines for the olive trees he once had in his home village.  A generation younger than him, 16-year-old Marwan (essayed by Saleh Kholoki) nonetheless feels the pressure to provide for his family -- now rather than after, as he had hoped, he had finished his schooling.  And in between the two of them in age is Assad (played by Bassan Lofti Abou-Ghazala), a young activist who has had run-ins with the authorities and thinks it would be better for him to flee before he gets arrested and thrown into jail. 

 

After each of them individually fail to agree terms with Iraqi smugglers, all three Palestinians decide to entrust their fate to Abul Al Khaizran (portrayed by Abderrahman Alrahy), a fellow Palestinian who said he would smuggle them on board a truck he would drive across the desert to Kuwait -- for a fee, but less than what the Iraqis said they charged.  (For the record, the bulk of The Dupes focuses on Palestinian individuals and their interactions with one anothers; with such as Zionists barely having any screentime.) 

 

Before they meet one another's acquaintance, Abou Keïss, Assad and Marwan are shown to have already experienced (more than) their (fair) share of deprivations and frustrations.  But while Abul Al Khaizran appears to be in a better position than the desperate trio, it turns out that he, too, has a tragic past; one that has made him actually even more embittered than his fellow Palestinians -- who, unaware of this, decide to trust him with their lives primarily because he hails from the same homeland as them.

A detached observer viewing what transpires in The Dupes will look at Abou Keïss, Assad and Marwan as easily identifiable, as per the film's title, dupes for trusting Abul Al Khaizran with their very lives.  And this especially when one beholds the old truck he drives and hears his plan, which involves hiding the desperate trio for a part of what was already a pretty dangerous journey inside its water tank -- in hellishly hot conditions, given that they would be making their trip in August (the height of summer).  

But the fact of the matter is that Abou Keïss, Assad and Marwan are pretty much in a "Damned if you do, Damned if you don't" situation and it's really a case of dying a slow or quick, extremely painful or still painful, death for all of them.  The sorry fate of Palestinians, refugees, and Palestinian refugees, it seems.  

 

At the same time, there's some hope dangled in front of our trio of protagonists -- and the fact of the matter is that sometimes, it's the hope that can kill you.  To repeat: The Dupes is not a film one goes into a screening of assuming that it'll be a fun watch.  But credit to Tewfik Salleh and co for making it engrossing, involving, cruelly tense and painfully heart-tugging -- and for making this (re)viewer want so much better for the work's (anti-)heroes, against what really are overwhelming odds.

 

My rating for the film: 8.0

Just two days into 2024 and I already worry that it won't be a happy new year!

I like the color of these flowers I spotted on a hike

yesterday (New Year's Day, 2024)

 

It's just the second day of the new year and I don't want to be a kill joy but I worry that 2024 may be worse than 2023.  Some portends that are not good: the killing of Palestinian civilians continuing on New Year's Day; ditto the war in Ukraine caused by Russia's invasion in February 2022; ditto the civil war in Myanmar which massively escalated in May 2021; etc. And to add to it, there being a massive earthquake in the Noto Peninsula of Ishikawa Prefecture in Japan yesterday -- though, thankfully, all tsunami warnings issued in association with it have now been lifted.

 

And then there's Hong Kong where, as per an RTHK report: "Safeguarding national security will continue to be Hong Kong's top priority, Chief Secretary Eric Chan said on Monday [i.e., New Year's Day], as he vowed to complete work for Basic Law Article 23 security legislation within this year."

 

A reminder: China imposed a national security law on Hong Kong on June 30th, 2020, which remains very much in effect and has sowed so much fear along with actual political persecution in the city. Basic Law Article 23 would effectively be Hong Kong's domestic version of a national security law -- one which has been opposed for decades by Hongkongers. Indeed, back on July 1st, 2003, over 500,000 people took part in a protest march against it -- and in the aftermath, the then Chief Executive of Hong Kong, Tung Chi-wah, felt obliged to resign, as did the then Security Chief, one Regina Ip.

 

Back to yesterday's RTHK piece: "On social media, Chan said the upcoming legislation, together with the existing national security law, will more effectively prevent, stop and punish acts endangering national security." So... Chan thinks Hong Kong is still not... secure?! (In other words: Hong Kong is still not back (to normal)? Re that last bit: if so, he and I are in agreement; albeit for different reasons!) 

 

Another bit from that piece: "Meanwhile, the number of visitors to Hong Kong topped 30 million in the first 11 months of last year, Chan said, adding that the government will continue to hold different international events and drive the local economy." 

 

While at first glance, that sounds impressive, do bear in mind though that that's still just around half of the number of visitors attracted to Hong Kong in 2018; and that the vast majority of Hong Kong's visitors, then but especially now, are from Mainland China rather than the rest of the world. So I really am not so sure how valid Hong Kong's description of itself as "Asia's World City" is anymore.

 

One more quote from the RTHK piece: "He also called on new district councillors to respond to people's urgent needs and concerns." Note: That would the new district councillors who gained seats in the District Council "election" last month which only 27.5% of registered voters decided to take part in -- as opposed to 71.2% for the 2019 District Council election -- for whatever reason (e.g., they couldn't be bothered to take part in something they considered a sham, couldn't find any candidate they actually believed would help them/Hong Kong, etc.)

 

So... happy new year? I would love for it to be so. But I already worry. And I think I have good reason to.  Still, if I were to look for a good portend: yesterday saw Hong Kong beat China 2-1 in a football match; the first time Hong Kong's footballers recorded a victory over China's in 29 years (or is it 38? -- in any case, it's a pretty historic victory!)  And granted that China had two players sent off (and an assistant coach) over the course of the game -- so were handicapped by having two players fewer than Hong Kong for part of the game.  But in some ways, that makes the whole thing even more hilarious (and yes, it's indeed good to have something to laugh about -- and so early into 2024 too)! :)

Hong Kong back in the limelight -- thanks to announcements by Agnes Chow and the Hong Kong government, and other farcical actions by the authorities that are hard to ignore

View from a plane on one of the 

Hong Kong International Airport runway

 

In recent weeks/months, my Twitter Timeline has had a far larger percentage of Tweets about Israel and Palestine than I ever could have imagined would be the case before October 7th; this not least since most of the people I know do not live in either of those territories -- and, if truth be told, not that many of them are Jews or Muslim either. 

 

Over the past 48 hours or so, however, the attention of many of those I Follow on that social media platform has turned back to Hong Kong; thanks in no small part to activist Agnes Chow breaking the news (on Sunday, her 27th birthday) that she is no longer in Hong Kong (English translation of her Chinese language post on Instagram here) and is unlikely to return to her home city, and the Hong Kong government Streisand effecting the hell out of her decision by issuing angry and frankly quite bizarre statements about her.

 

It's weird enough that the first of them (see here) looked to have deliberately left out her name, preferring to refer to her as "the woman" -- as though they had been scorned by her.  But the second of them (see here) is so apoplectic in tone that the BBC's China Correspondent was prompted to Tweet the following about it: "Have a look at the adjectives and adverbs in this statement from the Hong Kong government. If the intended effect was to persuade readers that a dissident should return to the city the actual result makes it sound like a place from where sane people should flee"!

 

In addition, there are other things going on in this part of the world that spark dismay and comment from people who care for Hong Kong.  For example, Sunday also saw some members of the League of Social Democrats, one of Hong Kong's few remaining pro-democracy political parties, and their friends getting stopped and searched by the police while out hiking!  As per a Hong Kong Free Press report: "According to the group, around 20 uniform and plainclothes police officers stopped the individuals at around 2.30 pm and accused them of breaching the Beijing-imposed security law. They were searched and their belongings were inspected, with the entire process lasting around two hours".

 

Even more concerning and horrifying was the news today that "a Hong Kong protester shot by police in 2019 has been featured in a police-promoted television special showing remorse over his frontline participation in the unrest that year".  As the Washington Post's Shibani Mahtani was prompted to Tweet: "Tsang Chi-kin was shot, tried to seek asylum and protection from the U.S. consulate in Hong Kong, spent two years hiding in safe houses and transported from place to place in boxes, was sentenced to nearly four years -- as if that wasn't enough, now he's "confessing" on TV" -- and make no mistake, it's easy to see that this was a forced confession; something that says much worse about the regime directing the "confessions" than the person forced into doing the "confessing".

 

Some additional context provided by Mahtani: "Tsang was only 18 in 2019, one of the hundreds of thousands of anonymous masked protesters until he was shot. Hard to comprehend how the trajectory of so many lives where changed in that year; the line between victim and perpetrator so intentionally blurred by authorities now."

 

And then we had a report of the closing arguments made for the marathon trial of the Hong Kong 47 (the 47 people charged with breaking the national security law China imposed on Hong Kong on June 30th, 2020, by organising and/or taking part in electoral primaries for the democratic camp in July of that year, ahead of the Legislative Council election then scheduled to also take place in 2020 but which were subsequently postponed to December 2021).   

 

Arrested on February 28th, 2021, and the majority of the 47 denied bail and held behind bars since then, their trial only finally began some two years later in February 2023. And it was only yesterday, December 4th, 2023, that closing submissions were made. How slowly the wheels of justice can seem to move these days in Hong Kong!

 

Among the more interesting statements made by lawyers for the defence yesterday are the following: "Prosecutors must have proven that Hong Kong pro-democracy figures at the centre of a landmark national security trial had used violence and intended to subvert state power if they are to be found guilty".  

 

There's also this from Trevor Beel, the counsel for journalist turned political activist turned political prisoner Gwyneth Ho: “This charge of conspiracy is like no other charge that has come before the courts... Everything was conducted openly for the simple reason that nobody knew what they were doing was illegal.”

 

All of which makes the proceedings of this trial all the more farcical. Except it's no joke when I tell you that this trial is jury-less and, instead, the innocence or guilt of the "Hong Kong 47", as they have become known, will be decided by three judges from the pool of those eligible to preside over national security trials and handpicked by the government. :(

The authorities come gunning again for Jimmy Lai and Apple Daily, who once more could do with Hong Kongers' support

The front page of today's Apple Daily

 

Should the photo seem familiar, it's because it also appeared 

on the front page of the February 19th issue of the newspaper

"Apple Daily will be published as usual tomorrow. Don’t forget to get a copy,” the paper's editor-in-chief, Chan Pui-man, posted on social media last night.  This assurance came in the wake of an announcement by the authorities yesterday evening that assets belonging to Apple Daily's founder, Jimmy Lai (including 71.26 per cent of voting shares in the firm which owns the pro-democracy tabloid) had been frozen.

 

As an Apple Daily article reporting the news noted: "This is believed to be the first use of seizure powers granted to authorities under Article 43 of the national security law, which Beijing imposed on Hong Kong last June, to effectively criminalize the city’s once-tolerated dissenting voices."  And should a reminder be necessary: Jimmy Lai's security law trial has not yet begun but the 73-year-old billionaire is already behind bars after being given prison sentences for organizing and participating in two unauthorized assemblies that were part of the pro-democracy/anti-government protests started by Carrie Lam seeking to enact a controversial and highly unpopular extradition bill back in early 2019.

 

What passes for "usual" and "normal" in Hong Kong is getting more and more troubling by the month, week and day. (Yesterday also saw a pro-Beijing man sentenced to six years and four months in prison, after he admitted to stabbing and slashing a teenager in the stomach at the Tai Po 'Lennon tunnel' two years ago.  As history professor Jeppe Mulich pointed out, "The absurdity is not that the defendant received a ~6 year sentence, but that sentences in the 4-6 year range are routinely handed out to people for "rioting" offenses. None of which involve the type of violence on display here": specifically, the guilty party in question caused his victim's guts to literally spill out!)  

 

And there's no doubt about Jimmy Lai and Apple Daily being among the Hong Kongers and Hong Kong organizations that are very much in Beijing's sights.  Rather than sow further fear into people here though, Hong Kongers being Hong Kongers, this looked to only encourage more open shows of support for Jimmy Lai and Apple Daily today by way of people going off to buy copies of the newspaper today -- in a repeat of what happened last August after Jimmy Lai was first arrested.  

At the first two places I looked for a copy of Apple Daily today, there were no copies of the pro-democracy newspaper in sight even while there were plenty of copies of other newspapers available.  Presumably, this is because the outlets had sold out of copies of Apple Daily rather than because they weren't stocking it or anything like that.  And at the street stand where I finally got a copy of the newspaper, I saw more copies being delivered while I was there -- so I'm presuming that extra copies were being printed late into the day which, of course, would be a good sign indeed for the publication.  

Almost needless to say, Apple Daily really could do with some support right now.  As was the case the first time I bought it, it was shocking to see how bereft of ads today's issue of the newspaper was -- and interesting to see that a rare ad in it had been placed by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (which was itself in the news today for having had researchers involved in the successful landing of China's space probe on Mars).  Hopefully, there will be a new round of ads being placed in the pro-democracy publication in the coming days and weeks. 

 

Even before the freezing of Jimmy Lai's assets, yesterday had been a sad day for Apple Daily -- with the announcement being made that its sister publication in Taiwan would cease publication of its print edition next week.  On a more positive note: today saw it being bestowed with the Kam Yiu-yu Press Freedom Award -- something announced in a Tweet by fellow award recipient Bao Choy, another Hong Kong media personality who knows what it's like to be prosecuted and penalized by the authorities, yet is still continuing to fight for justice all the same.

 

P.S. It's not escaped my attention that today also saw a tower block in Gaza City that housed media organizations having been destroyed by the Israeli air force.  There's no doubt about it: the press is under attack in too many parts of the world.  And while it can feel like those with guns and bombs have the upper hand at present, one also gets the sense that it's because they fear that the pen really can be mightier than the sword.  

Two very different female-oriented movies viewed at the 42nd HKIFF (film reviews)

Coverage of the 42nd HKIFF continues on this blog! :)

The Judge (Palestine-USA, 2017)

- Part of the HKIFF's Reality Bites program

- Erika Cohn, director and producer

- With Kholoud Fakir

A (male) friend visiting Hong Kong for film related reasons told me of a mutual friend of ours (also male) who's been getting into viewing a lot of films lately that are directed by and/or starring women.  If so, I told him, I'm surprised I didn't spot that mutual friend at the screening of The Judge that I attended.

Directed and produced by a woman (Erika Cohn), this intriguing documentary also boasts a female principal cinematographer (Amber Fares), mainly female executive producers and a number of female crew members along with having a very interesting female subject in Judge Kholoud Fakir, one of three female Shari'a court judges in Palestine. 

The admirable Kholoud Fakir was just 34 years of age when she and Asmahan Wuheidi made history by becoming the first female judges to operate in Palestine's Islamic law courts in 2009.  For many people, female as well as male, this development had been nigh on unthinkable.  For her, it was only logical and sensible that there are women as well as men assigned to administer justice in courts that largely deals with domestic and family matters. 

The intellectual prowess and mental strength of this judge (who also is a married mother of four children, two girls and two boys) is evident throughout the film.  And as The Judge also goes on to show, this is much needed since Kholoud Fakir has to face (down) more professional along with socio-cultural obstacles than her male colleagues. 

At no point does this captivating documentary try to hide that Palestine's is an imperfect, and arguably overly-politicized, society, with life often being tougher and less fair for females than males.  At the same time, however, it's noticeable how supportive Kholoud Fakir's husband (a lawyer who met her at work) is and also her proud father -- who talks on camera about how he actually thought that it was more important for his daughters to get a good education than his sons because, it was education that would be key to their being able to provide and fend for themselves.     

My rating for this film: 7.5 

Cloud of Romance (Taiwan, 1977)

- Part of the HKIFF's Filmmaker in Focus: Brigitte Lin Ching-Hsia program

- Chen Hung Lieh, director

- Starring: Brigitte Lin Ching Hsia, Charlie Chin, Chin Han

There's no two ways about it: I adore Brigitte Lin Ching Hsia!  Even so, I wasn't willing to watch her two nights in a row in two Taiwanese weepies (as it would have been the case if I had viewed Outside the Window the evening I attended this screening of Cloud of Romance), since my past experiences of them involve my getting so frustrated that I've actually thrown cushions at the (TV) screen on more than one occasion!  

Chiung Yao may have been a super popular romantic novelist, particularly in the 1960s and 1970s, but I think it's fair to say that her stories, and those super melodramatic movie adaptations of them, really have not aged very well.  It's not just that they're full of people who are so affected by love that it really can come across as a terrible malady capable of driving people mad.  Rather, it's also that the obstacles to romantic happiness can come, as was the case in Cloud of Romance, with such as the sort of mothers one wouldn't want to wish on their biological children and, more so, those who hook up with their precious offspring.

In view of how hyper melodramatic some of the scenes in this movie -- which revolves around a love triangle involving a spirited young woman (who thinks of herself as being like a floating cloud), a young man (who says if she's a cloud, then he's like the wind!) and a second, more down to earth fellow -- can be, I actually came away from my viewing of the offering with a greater admiration and respect for the ability of Brigitte Lin and her co-stars, principally Charlie Chin and Chin Han but also the actress who played Charlie Chin's character's demon of a mother, since they appeared eminently able to not only be able put their heart and soul into portraying the characters they do in Cloud of Romance but, also, keep a straight face as per the demands of the film!

I have to admit: for the first 15 minutes or so of the screening, I held a handkerchief to my mouth to choke back the sounds of hysterical laughter that I was afraid would upset some of my fellow viewers.  So it was quite the relief to realize after a while that many other people were similarly unable to stop laughing at certain moments and lines in this often excruciatingly melodramatic movie that proved to be inadvertently hilarious! 

Here's the thing though: amidst all this ridiculousness, I actually found myself shedding tears at two different points during my viewing of Cloud of Romance.  For despite her playing the sort of character I normally would not feel much sympathy for, not least because she needlessly got herself into situations that create tons of hurt for more than just herself, I still ended up caring for Brigite Lin's character in this movie because, well, she was being played by an actress whose charisma and plain greatness is evident even in a work that's far from the cinematic platform she really deserved.

My rating for this film: 5.0 (even with Brigitte Lin in it!)