Name: Nuzhat al-Fuad
Genre: Drama
Released: 2008-03-13
Duration: 1 h 44 min
Rating: 5.9
Cast: Oded Leopold, Meirav Gruber, Efrat Gosh

a brilliant tour de force about art and life

In Nuzhat al-Fuad, Judd Ne'eman has managed the impossible. While making a film about art (fiction, music, painting) that concerns itself with such intellectual questions as the relationship between the real and the imagined and the ability of human beings to defy fate, death, and God, he has created a visually stunning, emotionally wrenching, and wholly unforgettable film. It is amazing to watch a film that deliberately insists on reminding its audience that this is an artifice, a created piece, an invention, nevertheless engage the emotions of its audience so completely.

That we should see the film as storytelling rather than as eavesdropping on Life is urged on us repeatedly. We are told that one of the many pre-texts to the film is the story (and music) of Scheherazade, the young woman who keeps her execution at bay by telling intertwined stories with no end. We are shown a troupe of players emerging from a building, costumed, made-up, and ready to entertain. Iraqi storytellers and players in traditional costume are shown reenacting scenes. Actors play multiple roles. Characters dead in one scene seem to live in others. One of the story arcs is about a young woman whose scripts for an ongoing soap opera are, Pirandello-like, protested by her actors (and characters) as tyranny. But despite these constant reminders that this is at most a world of "magical realism," the narrative proves so absorbing and the acting so affecting, that the viewer falls willingly into the emotional details of the mythical (and melodramatic) tale.

At its simplest, the story poses the interesting question whether Cervantes lives because he has created Don Quixote or if Don Quixote owes his immortality to Cervantes. And the film answers the question in favor of Don Quixote. It argues that as the createdDon Quixote has made Cervantes immortal, so does the art of the storyteller, the painter, the singer, and the musician lend immortality to the artists. But the film that teaches this lesson is lush, detailed, and evocative. There are visually stunning moments such as the two young women on either side of a glass window, the painter and paintings in the hospice, the scenes on the beach where the story of a family's disintegration and its effect on the individuals is presented with a few powerful images. With the aural and visual splendor of The Arabian Nights and the tradition of Iraqi storytelling in the background, the film tells the story of two young women. One writes the scripts for the TV serial that features the other. The actress is fiercely independent. When she finds herself pregnant, she calmly decides to abort. The married scriptwriter, competing with and loving her father at the same time, is in the hospital at the same time dealing with complications to her pregnancy. The two young women do not like each other, but are destined to have their stories parallel and sometimes intersect. One faces madness, the other life-threatening illness. Yes, we know it is not real, we are constantly reminded that even the illnesses are symbolic, we realize that this is very much like a soap opera, but so powerful is the acting and so skillfully wrapped in the mythic dimensions of the ancient tale that we are entranced by their stories.

In Nuzhat al-Faud (the title comes from the story reenacted from The Arabian Nights) Ne'eman combines the high art of the philosopher with the low art of daily melodrama to create an absorbing, breathtaking experience. The sound track is particularly marvelous, utilizing voice-over, ambient sounds, and classical music, punctuated by the conventions of the ancient storyteller.

The drama genre is a broad category that features stories portraying human experiences, emotions, conflicts, and relationships in a realistic and emotionally impactful way. Dramas delve into the complexities of human life, often exploring themes of love, loss, morality, societal issues, personal growth, with the aim to evoke an emotional response from the audience by presenting relatable and thought-provoking stories.

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Odelia is a screenwriter caught in a demanding and complex relationship with her father, a renowned author. Her writing woes are making it all the more difficult for her to bridge between her creative fervour and pits of despair, whilst her frustration threatens to consume her burgeoning relationship. Tamara, an actress starring in a telenovela Odelia has written for, is at the peak of her television and theatre success when she is diagnosed with cancer. Both women are flung into an emotional tailspin that very nearly costs them their sanity. Two young women looking to make their mark, each in her own way, in a fight for control of their destiny. Who is the narrator and who creates the events that transpire? Entwined in each other's arms in a vice, they choreograph a surprising, inconceivable dance between fate and free will. Tales borrowed from Oriental folklore and Arabian Nights mysticism add an additional mystifying ingredient to the illusion being concocted.

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Nuzhat al-Fuad

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