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A couple of days ago I watched the Dutch film Layla M.
Laila's lives in a relatively conservative Muslim family. Her parents are Moroccan Arabs. Her dad has a small produce shop in Amsterdam. He cares about the quality of the goods and good service and the business goes well. The girl takes advanced classes, prepares herself for a career as a doctor, and is fond of soccer.
All seems well, but... except that her freedom of expression leads her toward excessive religious zeal. She fervently perceives news from the Middle East, feels outraged by the lack of respect from the local population for her religion, wears the hijab, and in general is moving towards radicalization. This tendency brings her to a confrontation with her family and friends. After she’s taken to the police for her participating in a radical demonstration, the father demands that she calm her excessive ardor. She disagrees, blaming everyone in her surrounding for not having sufficient deep respect for Islam. Eventually, after she does not fulfill her father's order not to wear a niqab in the house, the father announces to her that she is no longer his daughter.
the picture if niqab
That confrontation had its good side though. One of the "brothers of faith" from her mosque agrees to marry her and share the burdens of a "righteous" living. Especially because she's pretty (well, let's say, to a certain taste). By trade, her husband is an operator. After the wedding ceremony, he takes her to Belgium, where she shoots a video for a radical terrorist group. The police are after them and the couple has to fly to the Middle East.
At first, Leila is happy that she came to the historical motherland. Yet she quickly realizes that this is no Holland, where she could go anywhere by herself and had the liberty to express herself. Here, she could not go alone to the neighboring mosque Koran lesson. In addition, her husband began to push her around, imposing on her the duties of cleaning in the house and cooking. This somehow did not go along with what she saw herself doing in her life. Adding to that frustration was the fact she saw some footage, filmed by her husband, where Muslims were dragged along the ground, beaten and shot.
She makes a scene and demands that her husband sent her home. Her husband loves her. But he is a soldier of Allah and agrees to let her go, and we see her landing in the Amsterdam airport. But things are not going well. The border patrol, who knows about her husband’s activities detains her and does not want to let her back home. The film ends with this and the viewer is left to contemplate on whether they will let her into the country or not, and what she will say to her daddy.
This is the point of the picture. You want to believe in Allah — be my guest, you want to wear a hijab — wear, you want to pray on the rug facing Mecca — pray. However, do it quietly, mostly in your mosque or at home. Don’t impose your faith on anybody else and if you blow people up cafes - there is the possibility that you will be put in jail or deported.
One can believe in whatever they want, do what their religious practice requires, except when it imposes on the rights of other people.
Of course, from the Muslim’s point of view, things look different. Corrupt Europe, lives not according to the Koran. The earth, cities, and villages on it belong not to people who lived there for centuries but they belong to Allah and so on.
In essence, this movie is about the resolving the tense immigrant situation in Europe. I saw many clips devoted to this situation on Youtube. Is Islam a religion of peace or a militant ideology? I do not know. I did not read the Koran. Yet here's a catch. There are some other religions, for example, Hinduism, Buddhism or Zoroastrianism, etc., and no one (except perhaps for specialists in the religion) will attempt to read those books. Why? Because they do what they need to do according to their religious practice quietly, in their spare time. Nothing special is required.
I live in America and, at the same time, I cannot stand baseball. However, it wouldn’t even occur to me to demand its prohibition. If Triple G would fight an American boxer, I'll be rooting for Gennady.
All the same, I wouldn’t insist that everyone in America would paint eggs on Easter.
But let’s go back to the movie. It’s low budget. The scenes, either indoor or outdoor, don’t require any expensive setup. There are no racing cars, explosions or fight scenes. Acting is good though. In my opinion, the movie is done with almost documentary naturalness. Especially Laila herself — she is sincerity itself. The movie presents European and Muslim positions quite clearly. Yet it's hard to call this an art film. It produced an impression of a propaganda clip of what might happen to you if you will not behave.
Respectfully, @mgaft1.
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