Absurdity is not only the plays of Samuel Beckett. His attempts at depicting the nonsense of life — though impressive and touching — cannot come close to the absurdity and irrationality of real life. It was a great blow to Arabs and Muslims everywhere to learn of the death of the Arab-American director Mustafa Al-Akkad in the recent Amman bombings. It is at once ironic and beyond logic that a director who spent a significant part of his life making films to deliver the real message of Islam to the world should be killed by those self-appointed “defenders of the real Islam.” Though Al-Akkad made only two films with Islamic themes — “The Message” and “Desert Lion” — both were unusual not only because of the technology he used but also because of his own personal creativity.
From childhood when he lived in a conservative community in Aleppo in Syria, Al-Akkad knew that he was destined for the movie industry. He used to accompany his neighbor who worked in a movie theater and he sat enthralled by the films themselves and by the actual snipping out of offensive scenes. At the age of eighteen Al-Akkad had decided to be a director in Hollywood. “Don’t be such a dreamer,” the people of Aleppo told the ambitious youth. “You can go to Cairo or Damascus but Hollywood! Never so just forget about making a name for yourself there.”
Al-Akkad said, “I was determined to go to Hollywood.” At the age of twenty-one, depending on no one but himself, he went to the US where he got a degree in movie studies from the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA). After working on a few TV programs in the US, Al-Akkad returned to the Middle East and began to dream about making films there. When he came back, he already had the idea and plans of a movie that touched Muslims all over the world — “The Message.”
Fortunately, Al-Akkad was not alone in his enthusiasm for the film, which would ultimately require millions of dollars in funding. The Libyan president, Muammar Al-Qaddafi shared Al-Akkad’s vision and offered financing for the project.
“The Message” was, and still is, one of the landmarks in the history of the Arabian movie industry. The film deals with the main events in the life of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. Al-Akkad wanted the film to be the equivalent of the Hollywood historical epics. The Arabic movie industry soon became familiar with the idea of bringing together numbers of actors from all over the Arab world and filming carefully choreographed battles with the assistance of a special team from Hollywood. The film was successful in depicting the struggles of the Prophet though he was never seen on screen which is in accordance with religious rulings which prohibit his portrayal. The true to life portrayal of the Prophet’s character was as such that it had unconditional appeal to all — the educated and the uneducated, the literate and the illiterate, the old and the young, Muslim and non-Muslim. For the first time, the West was given an actual picture of the circumstances surrounding the revelation of Islam. That was not enough for Al-Akkad. In addition, he wanted to show an Arab character strong in determination and free will at a time when the Arab world was too often shown — and perceived — as defeated. In order to show what he felt, he decided to concentrate on the famous Libyan freedom fighter, Omar Al-Mokhtar, who struggled against the Italian invasion of his country, was accused by the Italians of treason and was eventually hanged. Al-Akkad had another purpose in his choice: He wanted the world to see that Arabs as well as Jews had been victims of fascist occupation, colonialism and concentration camps.
The Arab movie critic, Mohammad Reda, maintains that the success of the two movies was not because of their subjects or their huge budgets. “Al-Akkad knew exactly the language needed to communicate with the audience,” explained Reda. He added that Al-Akkad followed the advice of the master moviemaker, Alfred Hitchcock, who was told a young director: “Nothing should come between the movie and the audience, not even the director.”
In the last few years of his life, Akkad was attempting to make a film of the life of Salahuddeen, the Muslim leader who freed Jerusalem from the crusaders. He believed that Salahuddeen was perfectly in tune with the present time during which the issue of Palestine and its alleged peace with Israel is of international concern. Sadly and most unfortunately, circumstances did not permit Al-Akkad to transform his dream into reality. His death along with his daughter in an Amman hotel was as pointless and absurd as anything in a Beckett play; ironically, his death robs the Arabs, Islam and the entire world of one of the few who cared passionately about noble causes and nobler themes in films which he alone was able to produce with such moving skill and deep tenderness.
