‘Green light for cultural films’

Other Voices

IBy Ahmad Al-Sarraf

n his film ‘Zari’, the Kuwaiti director Habib Hussein expresses his faithfulness in his foreword about the film that without the faith of the teacher and friend Mohammad Al-Sanousi in his abilities and his approval in his capacity as an official to send him to the United States of America to study cinematography, he would have been a simple and unhappy employee.

I received an invitation to attend the first show and I arrived very early as usual to find nobody had arrived but within a few minutes the seats at the National Library Theater were filled with people, an unprecedented attendance, that showed how much we wanted to see the fine works and fine arts that we have missed due to the backwardness of the Muslim Brotherhood for a long time.

The beautiful large audience also showed how much they appreciate the talent available in our small country but they are in dire need of moral support, appreciation and recognition of such talent. They are the best messengers of Kuwaiti culture, rather than the morons who inject venom in the societies around the world.

The film Zari may not have been the best short film by director Hussein Habib, but technically is certainly the most wonderful. When the film began rolling, I looked at the face of the person sitting next to me and I knew how ignorant I was, and apologized.

Zari is the local word for the gilded yarns and chips imported from India, as it is known, is an intricate art of weaving threads made of fine gold or silver.

These threads are further woven into fabrics, primarily made of silk to create intricate patterns.

It is considered a kind of Kuwaiti traditional handicraft that has now disappeared with the loss of taste and the departure of those who mastered that craftsmanship especially women.

Zari was the profession or hobby of the mother of the international artist Mahmoud Ashkanani, when he was barely ten years old. His hobby was to draw the artistic shapes on the dress to be sewn by his mother and it opened the floodgates to the world of art on one hand and satisfy his love for formative art on the other.

This is what the artist tries to focus on in his wonderful documentary film which showed his long journey with formative painting, his ordeal with the serious illness that he suffered and almost impeded his life and how his love for his art helped him overcome the disease and return to his creativity and innovation.

Kuwait needs this type of films, not only because it documents history of events and characters but because it gives visual and audio pleasure.

We hope the Ministry of Information through the National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters will play a bigger role to promote this and similar other films. The characters are there and plenty talent is available; all that is needed is the green light.

Al-Sarraf

email: habibi.enta1@gmail.com

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Sheikh Mohammad Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah took pride in the mission of the personnel of Mubarak Al-Kabir infantry base on Boubyan Island.

The personnel play an important and honorable role in preserving the security of the country under the