TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL 2015 // A FILM REVIEW OF "AMONG THE BELIEVERS"
The 2015 Tribeca Film Festival, presented by AT&T, runs April 15th-26th and features hundreds of features, documentaries, short films, and special events all throughout downtown New York City. The ArtsWire Weekly's three featured reviewers Mateo, Derek, & Chrisena are hitting the festival and bringing the reviews right to you! What you should see and what you should skip...
This film boldly goes where I have never seen a film go. The opening scene includes an interview with the head of the Red Mosque in Pakistan, Maulana Abdul Aziz Ghazi. I’m fascinated to know how in the world filmmakers Haider Ali and Habib ur Rehman were permitted inside the mosque and furthermore, how they were allowed to interview both the administrators in charge and the students that attend school there.
If you aren’t aware, the Red Mosque is an organization that claims to teach the Quran to any student for free. Not just for free, they will pay for that child’s food, shelter and clothing, and they assure the children that if they learn the entire Quran, they will be rewarded after their death, allowing them to bring ten of their loved ones with them into the afterlife. The main problem with the Red Mosque is that the children, who graduate from this school, end up terrorizing all of Pakistan and calling themselves the Taliban.
What the cameras catch is such a disturbing scene. Children are made to recite and memorize the Quran every day, but never once are they told what it means. They are trained to believe that people who practice Muslim differently are infidels and should be murdered. In one extremely upsetting moment, a young boy recites part of the Quran to the leader of the Mosque and says that he wants to grow up to join the Jihad and rid the world of infidels. Most little boys want to be doctors or astronauts or firemen, not terrorists.
The film also introduces us to many other Pakistani natives, a man who built a school to keep children out of the Red Mosque, a young girl who escaped from one of the Red Mosque madrassas and professor, Dr. Pervez Hoodboy, at the local university who is a spokesperson for peace. They all say the same thing; education is the key to defeating terrorism and that the Taliban are not true Muslims, only terrorists. This was such an eye opening piece I really believe that every person in America should watch it. It is a challenging film. It is not easy to listen to these grown adults brainwashing children, nor is it easy to listen to Taliban members calmly try to explain why they believe that attacking innocent people is not just acceptable, but encouraged. It is difficult to watch these evil men, responsible for attacks on our country as well as their own, calmly pocketing the weekly offerings and taking advantage of the needs of the poor.
Difficult, but completely necessary.
VERDICT: SEE IT
DIRECTED BY Hemal Trivedi, Mohammed Ali Naqvi SCREENWRITER Jonathan Goodman Levitt FEATURING Maulana Abdul Aziz Ghazi, Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy
Playing as part of The 2015 Tribeca International Film Festival. For tickets & schedules: http://www.tribecafilm.com
CHRISENA RICCI once went to a costume party dressed in an all black dress and black wig. No one there could guess who she was. So she shouted out, "I'm Christina Ricci, without the T or I and add an E!" Everyone stood there confused, she was annoyed, so she stormed off. She never returned to that apartment ever again. Which is fine, because she later realized she was at the wrong party. She now lives in New York City.