It
is nine o’clock in the morning and already pretty hot in the Moroccan
countryside. Dar Chaffai is a dusty village in the middle of nowhere,
surrounded by endless rocky ground. Next to the village are the school
grounds. In the middle of a walled courtyard the pupils, from 6 to 12
years old, gather in front of the flagpole where a ravaged flag hangs.
Sanaa, one of the teachers, stands in front of them. She is quite
short, without a veil, her dark hair blowing in the wind. She gives a
sign and everybody starts singing the national anthem.
I
have seen a considerable change in the way people react to Muslims in
my immediate surroundings lately. Triggered by 9/11, the terrorist
attacks in London, Casablanca and Madrid and the ongoing US-led war on
terrorism, there seems to be a great deal of misunderstanding between
the West and the Islamic world. More and more Western people are afraid
of Muslims. But is it right that ‘we’ are afraid of ‘them’? Is this not
based on assumptions that are taken out of context?
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The
aim of this 52-minute documentary is to take away part of the
prejudices that the West has concerning the Islamic world. Shot in
Morocco, we will investigate the most common assumptions Western people
have about Muslims. The assumptions will be taken from newspaper
headlines or items from European television programmes. Teachers in the
countryside and a group of friends in Moroccan coffeehouses will tell
us what they think about them. These moments will not consist of static
interviews, but will be discussions, set in the daily life of the
people involved. Sanaa is one of the main characters of
the film. She has a very outspoken opinion on the assumptions that
exist in the West. About the Western wish to implement democracy all
over the world she says: “If you lock up a child for month and then
suddenly set him free, it will be a disaster; It is the same with
illiteracy and democracy. Democracy cannot be implemented from one day
to the other. I did not vote in the last elections, it is of no use.”
© 2006 MovieTron
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