Sheikh Jackson (Egyptian Movie "Inspired" By MJ's Death)

Moviefan2k4

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I didn't see anything about this, which was surprising in itself given the nature of the forum. The story seems interesting on paper, but the trailer is very freaky...

 
The concept sounds interesting. The conflict of religion and Western cultural influence. The strict rigidity of religion vs. a longing for the freedom expressed in art, music, dance. I will have to wait and see but on the surface of it I can even relate to it as an ex-Fundamentalist Christian when I too had my love for Michael on the one hand but it was in conflict with the religious teachings I was getting. Eg. being a fan of a pop star was considered "idoltary", you are only supposed to be a fan of Jesus, no one else. Obviously sexual dance moves or lyrics were a big no-no as well.
I think I know some of where you're coming from. I'm a Christ follower myself, but I was raised by very legalistic people who didn't understand my enjoyment of Michael's music and love for people. When the first allegations hit in '93, so many told me he was guilty, and I gave up trying to convince them otherwise. I still struggled with it though, and continue to do so sometimes. When Michael died, it was one of the few times I ever cried over a celebrity's passing. I never worshiped Michael or anything like that, but I felt an emotional bond since he was so childlike a lot of the time. I was also a fan of the character Data, on "Star Trek: the Next Generation"...and later found out my younger "relational age" was due to Asperger's Syndrome. I don't meant to derail this topic, but there's a very real difference (at least in my experience) between a personal relationship with Jesus and someone beating you with a Bible.
 
When I lived in Libya as a kid, I danced like MJ and grabbed the sh** out of my crotch.. no one stopped me haha!! some laughed, but F it!
 
I don't get how the MJ references shown in this trailer can make a coherent movie or it was a bad editing. I was confused trying to make sense of it.
 
Oscars: Egypt Selects 'Sheikh Jackson' for Foreign-Language Category


Amr Salama's drama about an Islamic cleric who dresses like Michael Jackson bows at the Toronto International Film Festival on Friday.

Egypt has selected Amr Salama's Sheikh Jackson, a drama about a bearded hardline Islamic cleric with a secret passion for Michael Jackson, as its candidate for consideration for the best foreign-language film Oscar.

Salama received news of his country's Oscar bid pick Monday while attending the Toronto International Film Festival, where Sheikh Jackson is set to have its world premiere.

"I’m thrilled and honored to be recognized,” Salama said in a statement. "My aim was to be honest from the beginning and I wanted to cross borders with this film and subject. I believe we have done just that."

Sheikh Jackson, co-produced by Film Clinic and The Producers, stars Ahmad Alfishawy and Maged El Kedwany in a drama where the sudden death of the King of Pop sends a former devotee, and now a young imam, into a tailspin.

Sheikh Jackson will bow Friday at the Elgin Theatre to close TIFF's Special Presentations sidebar.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ne...ikh-jackson-foreign-language-category-1037722
 
Its sad that the Estate refused to allow the use of Michael's songs, but they probably feared being associated with terrorism since a lot of Muslims have been attacking or insulting the US since 9/11. Regardless of what anyone believes, the fact is that the Quran still mandates jihad, and Muhammad lived it to its sickening fullness.
 
Worlds of Islam, Michael Jackson Collide in Egyptian Film
http://www.billboard.com/articles/n...chael-jackson-collide-in-egyptian-film-sheikh
9/23/2017 by Associated Press


An Egyptian ultraconservative Muslim preacher hears on his car radio news of the death of Michael Jackson, the pop singer he idolized in his teens, and he becomes so distraught he crashes his car.

The news of the passing of the King of Pop is the start of a crisis of conscience for Sheikh Khalid Hani, the main character of the movie Sheikh Jackson, Egypt’s first feature film to focus on the religious movement known as Salafis, followers of one of the strictest interpretations of Islam.

It follows Sheikh Hani, a Salafi, as his love for Michael Jackson throws him onto a bumpy journey to discover his own identity, mirroring how Egypt’s conservative society is torn between its Islamic and Arab traditions and Western culture in an age when television, telecommunications and social media bring together people and cultures from all corners of the world.



Michael Jackson photographed in 1987.

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“I no longer cry while I am praying. That means my faith is faltering,” Hani confides to a female psychiatrist in one scene. Crying while praying, he explains, reflects his fear of God.

The film goes beyond examining Salafis, says the director, Amr Salama. “It’s about humanity. ... It tells you that one’s identity is not a single dimension or an unchangeable thing,” he told The Associated Press just days before Sheikh Jackson premiered in the Toronto Film Festival earlier this month.

It’s a journey Salama has some experience in: He was a huge Jackson fan in his teens and then became Salafi during his university years, before moving away from the movement.

Salafism is one of the most closed, uncompromising visions of Islam. Its doctrine is primarily built around what its followers believe is emulation of the actions of the Prophet Muhammad. They are easily recognized by their chest-long beards and robes that reach to just below the knees. They shun music, film and dance and outside influences seen as decadent. Salafi women wear the all-covering niqab, including veils over their faces.

Followers view life as little more than a transitional phase and are contemptuous of worldly pleasures. Immortality in heaven is their chief goal.

When Hani goes to the psychiatrist -- who he thought by her ambiguous name was a man -- he asks her to put on a headscarf during their sessions. She refuses, and throughout their talk, he can’t look at her. When she asks him the last thing that made him feel alive, his response comes from Salafi doctrine: “I bought my shroud and wrote my will.” He occasionally sleeps under his bed, convinced that it is the closest thing to being inside a grave, thus a reminder of his mortality.

But Jackson’s death revives in Hani the obsession with the singer he had in his teens, when he imitated the star’s look and dance moves. It earned him the nickname “Jackson,” but also the disapproval of his macho father.

“He is effeminate,” the father says of Jackson. But Hani’s mother whispers to him, “He is the world’s best singer. But keep that as our little secret.” When the mother dies young, Hani’s father turns into a serial womanizer and becomes violent, beating Hani for imitating his idol.

When the adult Hani discovers his own daughter -- around six or seven -- watching videos of Beyonce, he tears out the Wifi and denounces “dancing to the devil’s tune.”

The film, which is to be released in Egyptian cinemas later this month and which Egypt has put forward as a candidate for a best foreign film Oscar nomination, goes into delicate territory.

Thousands of Islamists have been jailed under the government of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who was elected after leading the ouster from power of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013 and who has faced a fierce militant insurgency. Depicting Islamists with even a hint of positivity can bring questions from authorities and security agencies.

Still, while some Salafis have been jailed in the crackdown, the government has tolerated parts of the movement, in part because some Salafi political parties lined up behind el-Sissi after the Brotherhood’s ouster.

Salafism has been the fastest growing Islamist movement in Egypt for the past decade, and it covers a spectrum. Some Salafis are relatively engaged with other parts of society, often as successful businessmen; some separate themselves to avoid sinful influences; others denounce society outright as “kafir,” or non-believing. A militant fringe embraces jihad against “infidels” and tyrants.



Michael Jackson performs in concert circa 1988.

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The film risks a backlash from the public, either by viewers who see as it as too sympathetic to Islamists or, from the other side, as mocking religious beliefs.

“I have neither glorified nor dissed the Salafis,” Salama said. “They are just human beings like us.”

That extends to depictions of Salafi family that almost never show up in films. Hani’s wife understands his turmoil after Jackson’s death. At one point, Hani tells her he loves her because she loves God more than she loves him.

In a scene many parents could sympathize with, their young daughter watches her parents with disapproving bemusement as they drive her to school, joyously singing a religious hymn they heard on the day they met. Embarrassed, she asks her father to drop her off far from the school gate.

The movie builds Salama’s reputation as a director willing to take on some of Egypt’s thorniest issues. His 2014 Excuse My French dealt with the forms of subtle discrimination that Egypt’s minority Christians face, while the 2011 Asmaa portrayed the social stigma endured by those who are HIV positive.

Still, neither of the previous films was a box office hit, despite critical acclaim. Sheikh Jackson is unlikely to fare better in a country where comedies and action movies are the only sure winners.

“Salama has the desire to be different and that’s why his movies are not a commercial success,” said film critic Magda Kheirallah. “But the important thing is for the director to save himself and not surrender to the logic of the marketplace.”
 
Egypt Oscar Entry ‘Sheikh Jackson’ Getting U.S. Release Via Cleopatra Entertainment

Cleopatra Entertainment has acquired North American rights to Sheikh Jackson, the Michael Jackson-themed pic that Egypt has selected as its entry into the Oscar Foreign Language Film race. The movie was an official selection at last month’s Toronto Film Festival, and now an early 2018 theatrical release is planned.

Co-written and directed by Amr Salama, the film follows El Feshawy, who plays an Islamic cleric obsessed with Jackson as a teenager. After hearing the news of his childhood idol’s tragic death in 2009, his grief causes him to undergo an identity crisis that threatens his faith. Ahmed El Feshawy, Ahmed Malek and Maged El-Kedwany star in the pic co-written by Omar Khaled.

Cleopatra is the producer-distributor founded by Cleopatra Records head Brian Perera and has made recent deals for England Is Mine and A Street Cat Named Bob. Up next in theaters for them is Halloween Pussy Trap Kill! Kill! on October 27.

Perera and VP/GM Tim Yasui brokered the Sheikh Jackson deal with Ida Martins of Media Luna on behalf of the filmmakers.

http://deadline.com/2017/10/sheikh-...l-jackson-cleopatra-entertainment-1202189211/
 
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