Barsum is looking for a job

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title Barsum is looking for a job
Original title Barsoum Looking for a Job
Barsoum Looking for a Job (1923 film) 02.jpg
Country of production Egypt
original language Arabic
Publishing year 1923
length 15 minutes
Rod
Director Muhammad Bayyumi
script Muhammad Bayyumi
production Muhammad Bayyumi
camera Muhammad Bayyumi
cut Muhammad Bayyumi
occupation
Barsum is looking for a job
Digestive sleep by the roadside
Woken up and arrested

Barsum is looking for a job ( Arabic برسوم يبحث عن وظيفة, DMG Barsūm yabḥaṯu ʿan waẓīfa , French : Barsoum cherche un emploi , English : Barsoum Looking for a Job ) is a short film by the Egyptian film pioneer Muhammad Bayyumi from 1923.

action

Poor Sheikh Metwalli reads a newspaper so he doesn't have to think about his hunger. He gets the newspaper for free, he takes it from other people's rubbish. But the hunger continues to gnaw. Meanwhile, a street boy sneaks up to a homeless man sleeping in a backyard and steals his last bread. The thief doesn't get far. When he wants to leave the crime scene, he is seen by Sheikh Metwalli, who assaults him, beats him up and steals his bread.

When Barsum, the homeless man, wakes up under his heap of straw, he starts his day with a prayer to the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ , whose pictures hang on the wall of the backyard next to a flag of the Egyptian revolution . Then he wants to eat something, but the bread has disappeared.

Sheikh Metwalli has settled on the side of the road and devours his prey, then goes home. There he discovered an advertisement in a newspaper offering a job. He quickly runs to Barsum, who is wearing a European suit and a fez , but not even a shirt under his jacket. Metwalli reports to Barsum about the job offer. Barsum runs hastily to the employer, while Sheikh Metwalli clings to the back of a carriage.

Both Barsum and Metwalli are accidentally taken to dinner in his splendid house by a banker who is expecting a high-ranking guest. At the table they enjoy the food, but after a while they reveal themselves through their original table manners. The indignant banker puts her in front of the door and the impostor couple looks for a quiet place on the roadside to sleep off the intoxication.

The two drunk people lying on the roadside are discovered by a police officer. He rudely wakes them both and leads them to the police station.

  • Sheikh Metwalli ( Bishara Wakim ) reads against hunger

  • Barsum ( Abdel Hamid Zaki ) sleeping in the straw has his bread stolen

  • Sheikh Metwalli robbed the thief

  • Barsum prays for food, in the background the flag of the Egyptian Revolution

  • Sheikh Metwalli, Barsum and the banker ( Victor Cohen ) before the feast

Production notes

After returning from a European tour in Cairo, Muhammad Bayyumi initially worked as cameraman for the Italian director Victor Rosito in the production of the feature film In the Country of Tutankhamun ( Fi Bilad Tut 'Ankh Amun ). Bayyumi became the first Egyptian to work behind a film camera. Nevertheless, Rosito's film was not yet an Egyptian feature film. In late 1923 Bayyumi produced with actors Bishara Wakim, Abdel Hamid Zaki and Victor Cohen Barsum sucht ein Arbeit . This film is the oldest extant Egyptian feature film, Bayyumi took over all tasks except that of an actor.

Barsum Seeks a Work was published in December 1923. Bayyumi originally wanted to use the character of Barsum in a number of comedies. His son's death in December 1923 prevented him from carrying out this plan.

criticism

In a review of the 1963 Egyptian crusade melodrama Sultan Saladin , film historian Viola Shafik recognized that the film places Arab identity above religion: religion is for God and home is for everyone . Shafik sees the roots of this attitude in the Egyptian Revolution of 1919 , when previously politically marginalized groups such as women and Copts were mobilized to a large extent and pooled their forces in protest against the British occupation. In Muhammad Bayyumi's silent film comedy Barsoum Looking for a Job (in its publication Master Barsoum is Looking for a Job ) this idea was first taken up in the cinema. Barsum's religious affiliation is made clear by a picture of the Virgin Mary that hangs on the wall of his poor accommodation. Next to this picture is the green flag of the Egyptian Revolution, which symbolizes the common struggle of Muslims and Christians against the British with the white crescent moon and the cross.

Bayyumi went even further in his equating Muslims and Copts by describing his protagonist Barsum as a poor Copt who doesn't even have a bed, and shows his Muslim friend as someone who has to steal his bread. Barsumi seeks a job expresses the suffering of the Egyptian inhabitants from poverty and unemployment, be they Muslims, Christians or Jews.

The fact that Bayyumi occupied the role of the Muslim with a Copt, that of the Copt with a Muslim and that of the banker with a Jew was understood as a message from Bayyumi: the Egyptians will never rise as a strong nation as long as they are divided by religious differences become. On the way to a modern society, the nation must be above religion.

literature

  • Garay Menicucci: Arab Film . In: Eric Michael Mazur (ed.): Encyclopedia of Religion and Film , ABC-Clio, Santa Barbara, California 2011, ISBN 978-0-313-33072-8 , pp. 32-39, Lemma Arab Film

Web links

Commons : Barsum is looking for a job  - a collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Viola Shafik: Egyptian cinema . In: Oliver Leaman (ed.): Companion Encyclopedia of Middle Eastern and North African Film . Routledge, London and New York 2001, ISBN 0-203-42649-5 , pp. 23-129, here p. 72, pp. 92-93.
  2. ↑ Amal Elgamal: Cinema and its image . In: Contemporary Arab Affairs , 2014, Volume 7, No. 2, pp. 225–245, doi : 10.1080 / 17550912.2014.918320 .
  3. ↑ a b Mohammed Bayoumi: Mohamed Bayoumi (1894–1963) , website Alex Cinema , 2006, accessed January 31, 2019.
  4. ↑ Amal Elgamal: Cinema and its image . In: Contemporary Arab Affairs , 2014, Volume 7, No. 2, pp. 225–245, doi : 10.1080 / 17550912.2014.918320 .
  5. ↑ Garay Menicucci: Arab Film , p. 32.