Sabah 2005 Directed by Ruba Nad

Sabah
2005
Directed by Ruba Nadda

Rating ☺☺☺☺☺Smiley faces on a scale of 5

I was at a small group I attend and we were discussing various New Testament folks, when Salomé came up from the story about dancing before Herod. A person commented about her being one of the bad girls of the Bible. I had to comment about this based on my having seen this movie. It seemed clear to me, based on the movie, that I might not have a full understanding of what it means when women dance in middle eastern culture. This movie gave me a completely different perspective on what dancing might mean in a non-western middle eastern culture.

This movie seemed significant to me for three reasons. First, it showed the difficulty of living in a western culture when you come from an eastern culture. Second, it showed how an eastern culture lives from the intuitive feeling orientation. Third, it showed how women use dance in a Muslim culture where outward expression by women in public is limited.

In general, this movie fits into the "genre" of "chick flick". The movie is about a 40 year old Syrian woman (Sabah) and her family. They had moved to Canada and then her father dies, he was the central patriarch of the family. For many years the oldest son has been running the family business and the oldest daughter (Sabah) has been caring for her modestly ill mother. There is another sister, brother, niece, and and a sister in-law who make up the family circle. They are Syrian and are trying to maintain their family traditions. Sabah has not dated. She turned down all arranged weddings by the males in her family. She finally decides to take some chances in life, to break out a little, and decides to start swimming at a pool where she meets a fellow who becomes interested in her. The story is then about the conflicts between siblings, her mother, their culture and her new boyfriend and his culture.

At first blush, this sounds like a conventional movie about culture clash, and at some levels it is. What I found fascinating was the depiction of a family from an eastern culture depicted not from a western perspective but from an eastern perspective. American and western culture in general have as a general character, the classic mythic masculine style. In the world of the Myers-Briggs typology or Jungian psychological type this would be described as extroverted thinking based values, organized, with a proclivity for the "here and now", especially for what can be seen, touched, heard, smelled, etc. The eastern general character is one that is exactly the opposite, it is inward, feeling based, relational in character, open to possibilities but constrained by the relationships that are paramount. How does one express oneself in such an environment?

There are interesting references to the feeling character of eastern culture. Early in the movie, her brother is discussing seeing a doctor in Syria, and how the doctor won't want to burden or embarrass you so he avoids telling you about your extremely serious disease. This is just a quaint beginning to the similar dilemmas that face each member of this family. We see displayed the results of a feeling based culture where no one wants to hurt anyone else's feeling. Peace at any cost becomes the "motis operandi" for all relationships in the family. Over time this becomes an untenable position for all of the family members in various different and entertaining ways. We see how such a culture reaches into its shadow and uses strict rules to govern relationships so as not to hurt one another with their powerful relational feeling side. The courage of Sabah to move forward with her life is what ultimately disturbs the long held dysfunctional equilibrium in the family. When one person in a system gets healthier everyone has to get healthier or drag the other person back into the dysfunction. This is a common scenario for everyone in dysfunctional relationships.

I was intrigued by the role of dancing in their culture. Obviously, westerners have taken the "belly dancing" sort of style and perverted what seemed like a very beautiful form of expression. Yes, the dancing had a sexual quality to it, but this quality was in reality secondary to its primary purpose which was to allow a way for these women to express themselves physically in a very emotional fashion. When you can only be seen in public fully covered in a very conservative fashion, you are continually being watched by your community for deviation from the norm, and you are not supposed to associate with non-Muslims, what do you do to express yourself? The dilemma is quite fascinating. It seemed as though once these women crossed over into their homes, the covers came off, the hair came down and they were free to be more expressive. Home was a place where sensuality was allowed, expression was valued in a safe protected environment. It seemed to be a tradition that women would teach to each other from one generation to the next. To dance together was a form of cultural, generational, and sensual delight. It was very beautiful to behold.

They did learn to dance to be a delight to their husbands. But, to see this as its only purpose is to see with western eyes and the western shadow. When I consider the story of Salomé I could understand this as a family environment where a young girl is doing what women have done for centuries in the safety of the family gathering, dance to express herself and her womanhood. It has a wondrous beauty to it when seen from this perspective. Ultimately, it is what this movie is about, the expression of the feminine by the feminine, with courage and delight. The western world would do well to consider how it can value and foster the souls of women in this regard.

[botom.htm]