Yamustafa!

Romeo and Juliet (2007) Japan Original Article by: Fateh Mirghani-Japan I have just finished watching the masterpiece of Shakespeare” Romeo and Juliet “in its Japanese version. The quality of the movie is great and the soundtrack, injected with a little Japanese folklore music, has given it a sensational dimension and Eastern fascination! Basically, the theme of the movie remains the same as the original play, and that has been a particular Japanese notion in dealing with other nations’ cultural products. Part of the reason may lay in Japan's sensitivity to other nations’cultural products- given the long standing historical disputes with its neighbours, and part of it may lay in a fierce sense of homogeneity that has come to characterize Japan as an island nation-state since time immemorial. Thus the Japanese, unlike the Americans, don’t seem to have the temerity to ‘Japanize’ others’ cultural stuff. The movie “Renaissance man”  can be cited as an example of Amer...

Faisal Goes West "Identity is only what we make of it." Bentley Brown. Bentley Brown This movie is not yet out! Still in the rough cut and awaiting a soundtrack! According to its maker, Bentley Brown, a Texan who lived in Africa for many years,  "Faisal Goes West" highlights a more global story of human (in)equality, the dignity and indignity of the migrant experience, as you know — especially in the US and parts of Europe, people coming from Africa are often profiled in a negative light, never given the benefit of the doubt that they are intellectual human beings. This is something our film feel seeks to question. Specifically, in ‘this movie' we are focusing on a reality in America, on the absolute over qualification of immigrants. "The film speaks to two kinds of audience in the USA. Firstly, to a generation of migrants, for whom there are direct parallels with the story told in the film. The second audience are the Americans who don’t re...