Conversation with Faith Akin about ‘Rheingold’: Red Sea Film Festival
Faith Akin’s Rheingold briskly charts the rise of rapper Xatar from Kurdish refugee to cynical criminal to his triumphs in the world of music. I meet Akin at the Red Sea Film Festival to talk about this movie and his love for music.
Faith Akin: “I love music. Everything I do, it is with music. I fall asleep with music; I wake up with music; I'm in the shower with music. And it has been always like that. Music really inspired me in my career. When I have a difficult time, I always get inspired by music, and people like Prince, for example. What would they have done in this situation? So, musicians are guiding me in my career, and inspiring me, more than filmmakers. Often, I write with music and I choose the music before writing a film.
It's like, okay, I'm writing Marlene Dietrich, so what am I doing? I'm just listening to female artists. I'm listening to Joni Mitchell, Adele, Little Simz, whatever it is, as far as this female, I write it. And when I wrote Rheingold, I was just listening to hip-hop. '90s hip-hop, '80s hip-hop, todays hip-hop. And so it goes for me. And the way I edit films is always very musician. I don't really play an instrument. I play some bass, but I am not good at that. But I learned to play bass to understand music better. When I'm in the editing room, me and my editor, we use the editing program as if it's a musical instrument. My editor more than me because he's very virtuoso with his fingers. And I'm more like a band leader. I said, "No, we're going to play it like this and let's try to do F minors here." Do this kind of stuff. But it's very musical how we treat it.
I was thinking about the style of this movie that is very different from what you have done before, but it is connect in some way of what you have done, can you talk about this aspect of your movie?
If we stay on music, somehow this is a best of album. Like you said, all of it is from styles or moments or genres that I have used before. Comedy, melodrama, refugee films, the opening and the bombings like In the Cut. But yeah, mixed up new. So somehow, it's like the best of album, but also one inspiration was Frank Zappa. It really was because he's always changing the genre. He doesn't stay on one tune. He's changing his arrangement. And Zappa was really AN inspiration before. Me and my Italian producer, Flamino Zadra, who's a big Zappa fan. We spoke a lot about Zappa because first when he read the screenplay he said, "I don't understand the screenplay." And I knew that he was a big Frank Zappa fan, and I said, "Flamino, you like Zappa, and this is like a Zappa thing." We cross the genres.
You love to work with genres, but you transcend them to play with them and then you make them yourselves. How do manage to do that?
It is an opportunity to make a film about cinema. This is important. For me, it's a personal journey to my cinema. It's a personal journey to, I don't know, Blood in Blood Out, Scarface, Mean Streets, Goodfellas, The Godfather, all these films, which really inspired me and my youth. In a way I could use them in this. And before I made it, it was a huge discussion about cinema itself, in my company and with my friends. And colleagues were like, "Yeah, the cinema is in crisis. Nobody goes to see films anymore, just Disney.
What’s your position with platforms and streaming?"
I really believe in cinema in a very spiritual way, in a very religious way. I said like, "No, no, no, no, no, I don't believe it. Let's give it one more shot, one more chance. If this is the last film I do for cinema, I want to put all the genres in. I want to make it generous, and let's put everything in for one last film. And then we go home, and we just do television shows." And thank God, it's very successful in Germany, the film. It's a huge success. Nobody expected that. So, it's, "Okay, maybe it's not my last film."
Rita Di Santo is a film critic, a programmer, a script developer, a film reviewer and a former editor of 35mm. She lives in London writing regularly for national newspapers and magazines (Daily Mirror, The Tribune, Morning Star, Culturale Matters). She is Vice President of FIPRESCI and a member of the UK Critics’ Circle. She has juried some of the most venerated film festivals, including Toronto, Venice, Berlin, Moscow and Cannes- three times!
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Huda’s Salon
Directed by Hany Abu-Assad
Red Sea Film Festival
by Mattia Pasquini
Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad presented his eight-feature film, Huda’s Salon, at the Red Sea Film Festival. The film is about Reem, a young woman in a difficult marriage, who goes to Huda’s salon in Bethlehem for a haircut. She wakes up from a drugged sleep and discovers Huda has taken obscene photographs in order to blackmail her into working for the secret service of the Israeli occupiers. A spy thriller, full of suspense and adventure, but also the story of two women fighting for freedom. I have met Hany Abu-Assad and actress Manal Awad at the Red Sea Film Festival.
The story is based on true events. How did you work on the narrative structure of the movie?
Hany Abu-Assad: “My function as a director is to raise questions. Not just about the theme, but also about cinema. I have tried to make a very simple movie, only three characters, and two locations. But full of contradiction, where you as audience have no idea what's going to happen next, but also to raise questions about what is good and what is bad. Who's the traitor? Who's the lawyer? She's a traitor, also she is loyal to him. All these things are important to me to question in order to fight the bad in us, because I believe we all can go from bad to good. But if we are aware of the complexity of life, and the complexity of the human mind, then we can fight the bad in us in a better way. This is what I wanted to explore. I asked myself ‘What is the objective point of view in cinema?’ and ‘How to use two CONTRADICTORY point of views in cinema”. I am just somebody who's watching, or I am somebody emotionally involved in the movie.’”
How did you prepare for the role?
Manal Awad: “I am a Palestinian and I live in Palestine, and I know so many stories, since the occupation. She's just a normal woman. She's not with the fighters or something. She's just an ordinary woman, but the occupation has devastated her life. I understand this as a Palestinian woman living in Palestine. But I had long chats with Hany about this character, about who she is, and how she acts, despite all the situations that she faces, she still does it with pride.
What has the film meant to Palestinian viewers? What has been the reaction?
Hany Abu-Assad: “We haven’t had a screening in Palestine yet. Friends and families were shocked. It's very heavy to them, especially women, because in general men won't feel it, while a woman would feel vulnerable because their naked body. Especially Palestine or Arab women. Women were devastated. I never saw such reactions. I showed it to a group of women who work in that field, let's say, victims of sexual exploitation, harassment. They felt the movie could function as an educational film. It stands up for women. They were happy with the film because it can help them in their cause to fight and to protect more vulnerable women in our society.
What do you hope the impact will be on the audience?
Manal Awad: “Well, I hope that women's stories will be more shared in Palestinian films and in world cinema. The reality is that the dominant stories are for men and not for women. Women have so much to tell. My character is not only a wife. A woman can find herself in extreme situations. I wish many directors will take this courage like Hany and say, ‘Come on, women are suffering. Let's face it and let's put it on the big screen and support their suffering and tell that this has to stop, and this has to end.’
What does it mean for you to bring the film here to a country that has such a terrible human rights record on women ?
Hany Abu-Assad : I think it's very important because every step, every small step we build help to move another step. It starts with a movie, but then there's a movement that can come out of it. Even if it is a country where human rights are not at the top, but at least there are voices that are rising, that's important.
This is a spy movie, you have another spy movie in progress with Hugh Jackman. Do you have any update on it?
Hany Abu-Assad : “I love thrillers and probably this is why I chose the thriller genre and then spy genre, because personally, I love it. The suspense allows you to open your mind to different aspects of life. I use the genre in order to tell social issues. I love the genre, but it can be just entertaining if there is no comment or you don't say anything, just want to spend time. I use the genre to make comments and to ask questions about our existence and our society, also about our human existence. Regarding The Good Spy, the script is not ready, hopefully we will have a new draft soon and Hugh Jackman is still attached to the project.
