audio for written confessional

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bqogp8J-6rY

Stereotyped Arabs nothing but Flotsam ...in the Yemen

Stereotyping – it exists everywhere, and its a judgement call made by everyone. But there's one particular type that stands out – that of the orientalist stereotype. It was Edward Said, the eminent 20th century scholar who coined the term's modern meaning, describing it as the Western perception of the Arab and Muslim world that carries with it an air of superiority over the eastern other – superiority in civilisation, in religion and in cultural capacity. It embodies the ideas of 'Arab exceptionalism' that underlined the last decade, when a Western super power invaded Iraq to give them democracy and freedom without a hint of irony. And orientalism is not constrained to politics. In film, the Arab is often thoughtlessly – or worse, purposely – depicted as brutal (Aladdin), inept (Raiders of the Lost Ark), decadent (The Sheik), a combination of two (You Don't Mess With the Zohan), or all of the above (The Dictator).

But Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2011) stands out for its avoidance of such orientalist tropes. The story of an immensely wealthy sheikh who wants to import his hobby of salmon fishing home from Scotland to Yemen, at first glance it would seem that he is the quintessentially foolish and decadent cinema-Arab.

The strange Sheikh: garbed traditionally, fishing in Scotland

Despite the first impression (not helped by his eccentrically traditional attire – robes, ivory-sheathed knife and all) it is quickly apparent that the Sheikh transcends these stereotypes. “My intention is to colour this desert in green,” he declares, “make an agricultural industry for my people, and the sons and daughters of my people for generations to come.” The stereotypical 'Arabness' he is first associated with (“I have had too many wives not to know when a woman is unhappy”) washes away over the course of the film to reveal a man of boundless compassion and goodwill.

What is taken for a misguided adventure by all the Western men and women involved (from Dr Alfred Jones, the cynical brains behind the project to the Prime Minister's press officer who's only in it to seek the photo op of a lifetime) is by the end realised to be a serious project made not to placate the Sheikh's ego but to enrich Yemen's land and people.

A Yemeni disguised in a kilt makes an attempt on the Sheikh's life  

The Sheikh's project is a complete flop when terrorists open the dam from which the artificial river flows and flood it with a tidal wave that kills the fish and nearly kills our protagonists. The Sheikh and his advisers sit in the ruins of their work. It is here that his boundless compassion for his countrymen truly comes through. “These destroyers - bad men, certainly - but I think perhaps they have a point. I expected people to understand what we were doing here. I expected them to see that it was really not about fishing at all. In the end I asked for too much.”

The project's mixed messages is raised again in the final moments of the film. Resolved by the sight of a salmon – a survivor – leaping through the river's water, Dr Alfred Jones is inspired to start over. “I'll start small this time, a different approach – just a few fish to begin with, involve the local community more, make it their project, not ours, that's the way to protect it.”

And therein lies the message of the film. The local Arabs are ignored totally over the entire movie, despite its setting in the Yemen. Now this snubbing is recognised as wrong, and Dr Alfred is resolved to right it. It would have been easy to depict the terrorists as being the 'normal' Arab, ignorant and adverse to progress and indeed makers with a more orientalist mindset may well have fallen into the trap of such a depiction. Yet Salmon Fishing in the Yemen manages to avoid this, instead recognising that the Arabs should be treated as equals to the Westerners.

The terrorists second attempt at destroying the Sheikh's
dreams is more successful than the first

It is not a perfect subversion of orientalist stereotypes. The Sheikh, our principle Arab, is very rarely ever actually named. One Whitehall bureaucrat calls him “Sheikh Muhammad... thingamee”, the closest we ever get to a full name. All other times he is simply called 'The Sheikh', and to an extent this removes him being an actual relatable person, the way his plucky British assistants Dr Alfred or Harriet are. Instead he is this constant other, existing as the representative of a world hidden away from the viewer - the Yemen. Short arguments between the Sheikh and some locals, our film's terrorists, occur all in Arabic without translation for either the characters or the audience and the average English speaking viewer is left to take it as it is, with no insight into the Sheikh or his Arab rivals in their own environment.

And the film conforms to stereotypical depictions of Arabia in other ways. At every turn, there are men kneeling towards Mecca in prayer or muttering Arabic as prayer beads roll through their hand. This embodies one of the film's themes: that life is nothing without faith, and that overwhelming faith can overcome obstacles. But a sense of Arabic culture is not depicted beyond religion. The women are veiled in black, the few men are seeking to take lives and kill the Sheikh. Despite these flaws, however, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen remains a rare film for its otherwise satisfactory deconstruction of the usual stereotypes.

The film takes on a more political achievement in light of the fact that it was released in 2011, the year of the Arab Spring. This was a coincidence – filming was done between August and October 2010, several months before the Arab Spring began in December of that year. But it is a happy coincidence that a film, largely successful in its subversion of common perceptions and tropes surrounding Arabs should have been released in the year that completely turned every previous assumption of the Arab world upside down.

Documentary - 22 March 2013 in the news