VERDICT: A prestigious boys’ high school between Amman and the Dead Sea finds itself torn asunder in a growing divide between traditional teaching methods and the digital revolution, added to political tensions as the war intensifies in Gaza, in the Jordanian documentary ‘Mother of Schools’.
Although the setting is a dusty old school building that has seen better days in the provincial Jordanian city of As-Salt, there is a very familiar core of teenage concerns and values that makes the doc Mother of Schools accessible. It was screened as a world premiere at the Amman Int. Film Festival, marking director Abdallah Essa’s graduation from shorts to a one-hour feature format. A mixture of curiosity items assembled in a loose, at times repetitive structure, it conveys the universal dissatisfaction of teenage boys as they push to break out of traditional restraints and find their place in the world.
The filmmaker’s presence is not seen but frequently felt right from the beginning, when five 17-year-old friends address the camera and the director’s apparent suggestion they stop smoking while it is running. This sets up an off-screen dynamic with sometimes humorous consequences, as the boys – most of them from well-to-do families – bitterly complain about their teachers. Their lack of respect shows in the fact they sleep through classes. On the other hand, the teachers seem keenly aware they are being filmed and obsessively debate how they can outperform the online classes that their students study until late into the night.
This is the great debate of the moment: whether traditional teaching in the presence of someone who can answer questions is still relevant, given the allegedly superior explanations of online teachers. Surprisingly, parents who can afford the cost are quick to buy into digital learning at the insistence of their workaholic offspring. The vast array of topics available — physics, biology, chemistry, history, religion, math, etc. – makes sure students are perennially behind in their studies and are always stressed out.
With no time for sports or extracurricular activities, much less girls, the five unnamed boys who are center stage appear to do little besides study. But there is one aspect of the larger world that captures their attention and disturbs them: the red-hot war in Gaza. It seems no accident that historic As-Salt is on the old main highway connecting Amman with Jerusalem: it represents the outside world slipping into their sheltered lives. Watching the news on their cell phones, they blame their teachers and principal for not talking about the war in assemblies or classes. Thus they hatch a daring plan to take the podium during an assembly and call out official indifference to the Palestinians’ desperate plight. But instead of detonating this potentially explosive material in a grand finale of student rebellion, in the best tradition of films about young people, Essa chooses the path of quiet realism. When the key moment happens, it goes practically unnoticed, drowned out by all the noise around online classes.
The filming has a white, washed-out look that perhaps befits the somewhat decrepit, unpainted and unadorned hallowed halls of the school, and sound quality varies.
Director, screenwriter: Abdallah Essa Cinematography: Laith Yaghmour Editing: Eyad Hamamm Production companies: Royal Film Commission, Golden Frame, Silwan Production House Venue: Amman International Film Festival (Arab Feature Documentary competition) In Arabic 63 minutes
