Danish film

(January 27, 2014)

Once a week, the BBC Arabic shows an independent film - an Arab film. This week, they broke with tradition and chose a Danish film!!!!

The film-maker is called Ulaano Samir, he is 25 or 26, and he has Iraqi parents.

The film was about 20 minutes long. It is called "Min Bror" (My Brother.) It was in Danish, with subtitles in Arabic, which was nice and all for people who know how to read quickly in Arabic! But I did my best.

The two brothers in the film were, like the film-maker, originally Arab, and can I just say that they kept up a steady stream of curse words the entire twenty minutes? By reading the subtitles, I learned 'the F-word' in Arabic. My mom says that Arabs NEVER curse, NEVER use dirty words, Arabs are just so super perfect. After seeing this film, you can just imagine my state of shock.

After the film, Mr. Ulaano was interviewed by the BBC Arabic.

Question: Won't your film ingrain stereotypes about Arab immigrants even further?
Answer: I see my characters as kids first. I don't see them as Arabs or Danes. They made wrong choices, and that's it [the two brothers invade a store and murder one of the employees in the movie.]

The film-maker further said: I chose kids of Arab origins because that's like me, but they are Danes, they speak perfect Danish, they were born in Denmark. The first thing is: they did something wrong.

Question: sometimes, Arab film-makers feel like they have to speak about refugees or immigrants, and nothing else.
Answer: I feel like I am the one who chooses. If I want to make a movie about something, I do it. If I don't, then I don't.

Mr. Ulaano went to the national film school of Denmark with this film. There's a film festival called Nordic Panorama which accepts three films from every Nordic country, and this film 'Min Bror' was one of the three chosen from Denmark. So alhamdolillah, he is very happy about the film reception.