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All the Transit Cities

19.05.12

“Transit Cities” and Dialogue of Cultures International Film Festival run through October 27. Venues: Quad Cinema and SVA Theater.

“Transit Cities” (2010), the debut feature by Jordanian director Mohammad Al Hushki, opened this Friday at Quad Cinema for a one-week run as part of the inaugural Dialogue of Cultures International Film Festival ( DCIFF ). The film won’t likely have been on the minds of most American cinephiles, but it won a special jury prize at last year’s Dubai International Film Festival. Hushki’s shorts have shown at Sundance and has been actively promoted by the Jordanian Royal Film Commission (RFC).

Hushki is an interesting character in global cinema, from a Western perspective. First, he’s young—he directed his first short film, “Life Temporarily,” in 2004. Seventy percent of Jordanians (including the majority Palestinian population) is under 30 years old. About the same percentage are urban. Neither of these numbers are out of line with its neighboring countries. To that extent, Hushki, and other Arab filmmakers of his generation, carry the burden of not only speaking to their peers but speaking to their national identities. “Transit Cities” asks, what is the role of secular Jordanian youth in an increasing fundamentalist culture? Of course, he needn’t be asking about Jordan specifically, nor need he be Jordanian specifically. All the nations of the Middle East are confronting a similar question. The popular movements that arose in the region this Spring are a consequence of that.

Source: Cinespect