Capturing not only a wrenching feeling of loss and ending in traditional Iraqi society, but more universally, a sense of the mortal arc of human life that no one can change, Oday Rasheed’s Songs of Adam shows the futility of trying to stop time in the face of the bulldozer of history. It is a must-see title now making its way through the festival circuit, where it won the Golden Palm Award for Best Feature Film at the recent Saudi Film Festival, as well as the Red Sea Film Festival’s Yusr Award for Best Screenplay,
Ever since his 2005 debut docufiction Underexposure brought filmmaker Rasheed to prominence – it was the first film to come out of occupied Baghdad after the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the death of Saddam Hussein – the Baghdad-born, L.A.-based writer, director and producer has described his native land in terms at once gruesomely real and penetratingly lyrical. From the angst-ridden depression of the city in his 2010 Qarantina to the Brooklyn-shot If You See Something (2021) about an Iraqi seeking political asylum in the U.S., he has brought reality checks to our understanding of modern-day Iraq. Songs of Adam is a striking addition to this effort.
Amid the verdant fields and palm groves of Mesopotamia in 1946, we first meet Adam, a young boy whose grandfather has just died. His calm, reflective face shows no particular trauma when he is placed among the village men to witness the old man’s body being washed, but this brush with human mortality is the decisive moment when he vows never to grow up.
While the years pass and the people around him live through the five ages of man – boy, adolescent, youth, adult and old man – Adam remains a pure soul in a child’s body. Mysteriously, he can slow his heartbeat almost to a standstill, and there is something of the savant about him that terrifies the superstitious villagers. When the crops are attacked by weevils and fail for the second year in a row, he becomes a scapegoat and an outcast.
Then, along with personal misfortune, the ravages of history infringe on the handful of characters, who include Adam’s cowardly younger brother Ali, his girl cousin Iman who carries her childhood crush on him throughout her unhappy life, and his big-hearted shepherd friend Anki. War, revolution and ISIS appear out of nowhere to torment and destroy the idyllic community that had seemed unchanged since the birth of mankind, and Adam is always present as an innocent observer.
Rasheed’s Peter Pan screenplay is convincing because it is so brilliantly low-key, seamlessly interwoven with D.P. Basim Faihad’s cinematography of a natural world (shooting took place in Anbar province) that, at times, seems close to paradise.
The story itself has interesting parallels with Gunter Grass’s novel The Tin Drum, which later became a Palme d’Or-winning film directed by Volker Schlondorff. Grass’s poignantly ironic vision of the Second World War and its aftermath in Europe is seen through the eyes of little Oskar Matzerath, who decides he will never grow up after his father tells him he’ll become a grocer. Like Adam, it is implied that he has an adult’s ability for thought and perception and a spiritual development that is complete at birth, giving these fantasy children a unique perspective on history.
Unlike Oskar, Adam will avoid the mental asylum that his brother Ali threatens him with. But then, Rasheed’s own vision is much more poetical, bringing a sweeping sadness to the images of a changed, dehumanized Iraq that conclude the film.
Child actor Azzem Ahmad (the only member of the deeply moving cast who is not played by five different actors) plays the unworldly Adam with a sort of supernatural lightness that keeps the character balanced between the human and the universal. Integrating perfectly into the rich natural soundscape are some extraordinary choices of traditional music, from soulful drumming to the final chilling vocals.
Director, screenwriter: Oday Rasheed
Producers: Majed Rasheed, Ally Tubis, Oday Rasheed
Cast: Azzam Ahmad, Alaa Najm, Abdul Jabbar Hassan, Tahseen Dahis, Hoda Shaheen, Ali Al-Karkhi
Cinematography: Basim Faihad
Editing: Hervé de Luze, Muhannad Rasheed
Music: Bryan Keller, Oday Rasheed
Sound design: Inanna Palikruschev
Venue: Amman International Film Festival (Arab Narrative Competition )
In Arabic
98 minutes
