The eerily empty Great Mosque in Mecca is less setting than subject in Suraya AlShehry and Nabila Abuljadayel’s Prostrate and Draw Near.
When we think of films that have been made about the impact of the various lockdowns around the world that were the result of the Covid-19 pandemic, they are often defined by the claustrophobia of depicting people confined to their homes. But what about the buildings and places that were left standing empty, those communal spaces in which people would have come together culturally or spiritually and which had to remain desolate due to government mandates. This is the angle from which Prostrate and Draw Near approaches its portrait of the Great Mosque.
Beautifully rendered in a combination of painting and hand-drawn animation, the film depicts the quiet mosque, shifting through time to present it packed with worshippers and devoid of them. We are so used to seeing images of the site from above, the Kabba surrounded by bodies who have made sacred pilgrimage, but here AlShery and Abuljadayel’s film shows its unattended peacefulness. While worshippers were forbidden from attending, the site’s cleaners were not, and so they – along with the perennially present doves – became its custodians.
The notion of such spiritually significant spaces being denied their devoted attendees already makes for a strangely compelling idea, but the filmmakers latch on to the deeper implications of the few people who were allowed there being those who might normally be forgotten and go unseen. The soft coos of the dove and the ostensibly lowly hands of the cleaner become a potent conduit to faith and perseverance in this slight, but eloquent short.
Directors, screenplay, producers: Suraya AlShehry, Nabila Abuljadayel Cast (vocals), music: Salah Edinne Mesbah, Ahmed El Maai Editing: Saif Al-Rbehat, Mohammed Al-Sbeenati, Husam Abu-Arqoup Animation lead: Omar Abd Al-Hafez Sound: Anas El Khamlichi Production companies: Suraya Productions (Saudi Arabia), Tomandora Productions (Jordan) In Arabic 6 minutes
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