Reema,
There and Back. A Family Divided by Two
Worlds
by Paul Émile dEntremont,
Director; Jacques Turgeon, Producer
National Film Board of Canada, 2007
51 mins., col.
Archive website: http://www.nfb.ca.
Reviewed by Dr Alex Rotas
Cardiff University
This is a sad and short film, less than
one hour long, flagged up, I suspect,
as being of interest to Leonardo
readers because of its claim to examine
the "double identity" of its young protagonist
Reema. Reema was born in Iraq to an Iraqi
father, Ali, and a Canadian mother, Elizabeth.
Unable to endure the restrictions of family
life in Baghdad, however, Elizabeth fled,
taking baby Reema with her and bringing
her up in rural Nova Scotia. Her sister
Tamara, older by two years, was left behind
to be raised by Alis family in Iraq.
In 2004, after 16 years of silence, Ali
suddenly decides he wants Reema in his
life and a family reunion is arranged,
where the sisters meet each other, as
well as the parent they had lost, for
the first time since the family was divided.
The film documents this reunion and, in
more detail, a two-month trip Reema made
the following summer to Jordan to visit
her father.
On the surface a film about cultural difference,
this film transpires to be more about
selfish parenting than the tricky and
subtle problems of negotiating a hybrid
identity. Canada and Iraq are presented
unproblematically as two binaries in direct
opposition to each other, with stereotypical
melodies signalling location: an oriental
lament preceding every cut to the Middle
East and clarinet and strings when we
find ourselves in Canada. No effort is
made to investigate Alis very particular
Iraqi identity, with his faultless American
accent, his fondness for blue jeans and
beer as well as for hookahs. Reema and
Elizabeths simplistic understanding
of (or, probably better, their antagonism
to) those they refer to as Arabs
doesnt deepen as the film progresses.
As a result, both the cultural and the
personal gap between the two sides of
the family remains wide, and there is
little attempt to disentangle the cultural
from the personal in the problems that
they all face, still less to examine the
connection between the two.
Outgoing Reema struggles to deal with
the situation with a mixture of bewilderment,
tears and rage, while quieter Tamara,
apparently settled and happy in her home
environment, weeps and talks of her love
for the sister she now misses. Both daughters
are overshadowed by the personalities
and will of their parents, who, despite
their cultural/personal differences
have probably rather more in common than
perhaps they themselves realise. Certainly
they share an extraordinary degree of
solipsism and self-absorption, both in
their different ways treating their offspring
almost entirely as extensions of themselves.
Neither had married for love. For Ali,
"Elizabeth was a way out". Marrying her
meant he would not be sent to the front
line to serve in the Iraqi army, then
at war with Iran. Elizabeth married Ali
for the $40,000 he offered her to pay
her, in return, for her college fees ("I
was lying through my teeth", Ali grins
to camera now). Twenty years on, Ali showers
Reema with expensive perfume, clothes
and gifts in Jordan, admonishing her for
only phoning him twice during the previous
six months. Having not contacted her at
all for 16 years, he blames her now for
the fact that he "knows nothing" about
her. "You have to show you care," he orders.
Weeping in her mothers arms on her
return to Canada, Elizabeth comforts her:
"Poor thing. Now you know how hard it
was for me." Already troubled with issues
of self-esteem an opening sequence
of the film shows a close-up of Reema
talking about how ugly she feels she is
no wonder her T-shirt of choice
at this juncture has Trash
emblazoned across its front.
Equally, Elizabeth detaches herself from
any responsibility for her estrangement
from her other daughter. Why is she shorter
than Reema, she wonders, despite being
two years older? "It must be from lack
of nurturing on her grandmothers
side," she snorts, as she bemoans also
the fact that "she doesnt speak
English well. I cant even have a
decent conversation with her." For her
part, Reema observes that "its nice"
to see her sister "but shes tiresome
and
she wasnt raised like
a Canadian child." This is not really
a film that opens a pathway to an analysis
of the subtleties of cultural difference
or of putative hybrid identities. It does,
however, encourage reflection about the
difficulties and responsibilities involved
in documentary film-making. It was unsettling
to think that the two innocents in this
family saga, Reema and Tamara, already
confused and sorrowful, now have filmed
evidence of insensitive words spoken to
and about them that are certainly cruel
enough to cause them further pain. Above
all, this is a film that invites reflection
on issues pertaining to adult fecklessness,
the inability of individuals to think
that the gratification of their own immediate
needs might bring some difficult repercussions
in its wake and the heavy price that their
children pay as a consequence.