Arizona Reporter - Movie Reviews - 10/11
VOICES FROM EL-SAYED (Shablul Barmidbar)
First Hand Films
Reviewed for Arizona Reporter by Harvey Karten
Grade: B+
Directed by: Oded Adomi Leshem
Written By: Oded Adomi Leshem
Cast: Residents of El-Sayed village in Israel’s Negev desert
Screened at: Critics’ DVD, NYC, 11/6/09
Opens: November 17, 2009 at New York’s Cinema Village
Cinephiles will recognize the theme of hearing impairment that informs “Voices from El-Sayed” if they’ve seen Josh Aronson’s year 2000 motion picture “Sound and Fury,” which asks the question, “If you had deaf children, would you want them to hear?” That picture, whose Shakespearean-derived title is stunning in its encompassing of the theme, evoked diverse answers. Believe it or not, when offered cochlear implants that would enable their profoundly deaf children to hear for the first time, half of a group of parents declined, stating that the doctors are meddling with “deaf culture,” as though they were agents of new imperialism threatening to squash their children 's way of life.
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Similar interference comes from the Bedouin folks filmed by Daniel Kedem in Oded Adomi Leshem’s “Voices from El-Sayed,” part of “The Other Israel” festival that runs in New York during the month of November to celebrate Arab cultures. This area of 80,000 Arab dwellers has the highest concentration of deaf people in the world due, perhaps, to inbreeding, though that aspect is not dealt with. Producing kids, many of whom are bound to be deaf because of genetics, does not bother the elders of the village, but we should not consider their attitude at all irresponsible. In fact one of the young women says, or signs, “Deaf is fun!” One of the dads agrees, liking the silence of his house.
Since much of the movie is from the point of view of the deaf people, especially two and one-half year old Muhammad, those minutes come across like a silent. We could be watching “The Great Train Robbery” if that crime took place out in the nowhere desert of southern Israel, where Salim, Muhammad’s father, drives a car, works in an auto shop under a Jewish boss, and spends lots of time practicing words with his child until he finally learns to speak, a climactic moment in a movie without the usual climaxes of car crashes, chases and explosions.
A team of Jewish Israelis comes around to push cochlear implants on the children. This would require an operation that would restore hearing, though many adults are against the surgery, albeit not because of cultural defenses. The reasoning of some who are against giving cochlear implants is that the technology is annoying and that, in the words of one, when these kids reach adulthood they will more than likely take the gadgets out.
We see a brief clip of Israeli surgeons drilling a canal into the spot of an implant while dad waits patiently outside for results. Bottom line is that it takes months before a kid will be able to hear real words, maybe longer before a child can speak. Given the way Arabs and Jews work together, you’ve got to imagine how great the area would be if a true peace could be attained. Salim may complain that his boss gives him less money than he’d hoped for, though he doesn’t say a word to the employer for fear of being fired. The residents complain that the government talks a good game but does not pave the roads of supply enough electricity to run for more than eight hours daily. But everyone, Arabs and Jews, seems to work together, enjoying one another’s company.
The one thing odd about little Muhammad is that when his friends and family members sneak up behind him and beat a drum or yell, the kid does not turn around. Yet Muhammad indicates in other ways that he can indeed hear. One wonders why the Bedouin kids who go to a school for the deaf in the town of Kfar Saba are not taught Arabic by the Jewish teachers, though.
Some deaf people marry hearing partners, since “How else can we hear the baby’s cries?” Others are not so sure. All in all this documentary is a dandy slice of life in a down that’s even more hayseed-like than Staten Island, does not even have a Mickey D’s or a Zabars, but everyone is full of joy. The film is a joy to watch, as well.
VOICES FROM EL-SAYED (Shablul Barmidbar)
Unrated. 75 minutes. © 2009 by Harvey Karten Member: NY Film Critics Online
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