A text on the experimental documentary 'Maesmak' by Georges Salameh and on forgetfulness as a metaphor for human ignorance and civil insensibility.
War, death and advocating for peace appear in 'Maesmak' that Georges Salameh completed in 2008. 'Maesmak' is an experimental documentary. The title is in Arabic, and it means 'what's your name?'.
The documentary discloses the cruelty of war like no humanitarian protocol can describe and measure, or any political speech can tackle and address. None of these means is adequate for transferring that loss and death are nearby threats and no other
form besides a visual narrative or an ode, like 'Maesmak can pay homage to this loss.
The starting point for the film was in 2002 when Salameh travelled to Iraq and joined a peace procession. During the procession, he accompanied Pantelis Anagnostopoulos- one of the central figures in the movie. Eventually, the procession would end up with planting an olive tree in Rutba in the middle of the desert, at the Western gate of Baghdad, as a symbolic gesture and a sign of peace. Strange as it might seem, the invasion of Iraq took place only a few weeks after Salameh's voyage.
The title 'Maesmak' and ultimately the question 'what' s your name?' alludes to the groups of children the artist encountered in Iraq and accounts for the victims of the war, whose names are never recorded. It is a fact that Salameh began to edit the film 5 years after his voyage and the invasion. Throughout the years, he could not disquiet the thought of 'what had happened to those he met in Iraq?'. Despite the turbulence and before starting to edit, Salameh sunk in thought and let the time pass.
In his effort to recreate the never-ending wounding of war, the question 'What's your name?' functioned as a rhetorical device that facilitated the artist to dwell on the events and trace the meanings that could have slipped away. During 2002 -2007, the artist purposefully trickled to oblivion, to witness forgetfulness. Once he reached that end, he recovered and finally set free from mental numbness, a kind of coma that opposes to sensitiveness and liability. The whole process he underwent was a lasting practice and a lesson of learning how to recover the truth and oneself.
For the narration of the events, Salameh collaborated with the Iraqi artist and storyteller Yousif Latif Jaralla. They met in Palermo, Italy in 2007 and by that time Yousif was already in exile for more than 20 years. In one voice over Salameh recorded Yousif narrating the story he had written for 'Maesmak' in Arabic. In the film, Pantelis describes the endlessness of the desert, while Yousif talks about Baghdad as an invisible city. The two men create an instant dialogue, and they alarm us for the psychological death that comes with insensibility. To this contributes the reference to the emotional process that people undergo, to accept death, when they are terminally ill, which Salameh added in the movie.
The artist re-enacted the state of forgetfulness, primarily to experience ignorance as if it was an incurable malady, from which he finally recovered. By creating a story that condemns the tolerance of violence and the force of learning to endure it, Salameh also denounces emotional death. It comes through that on every "grim day" [1], we should resist complying with forgetfulness. As it is mentioned "the spectator cannot but remember 'Maesmak' as the name that will have been forgotten" and it is our moral obligation to acknowledge it [2].
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'Maesmak', 2008, 20'20''. The documentary has been selected for numerous screenings internationally and in 2009, it received the prize of Best Documentary in the Short Film Festival in Teheran, Iran.
Contributors:
Voice over: Yousif Latif Jaralla – storyteller, Pantelis Anaghnostopoulos – traveller, William Odling-Smee – doctor
Editing: Georges Salameh- Marina Gioti - Alexandros Salameh
Music: Theofanis Avraam – Victoria Taskou – Voltnoi Brege – Muslimgauze
[1] quote from the film, Salameh, 2008, 17'40''
[2] Nigianni, Chryssanthi. Remembering what is already forgotten. georges salameh. https://georgessalameh.blogspot.com/2016/11/blog-post.html
For more information visit https://georgessalameh.blogspot.com/p/filmogra.html and https://www.instagram.com/peripatetic_notes/.