Movie review #1: FALAFEL فلافل

Falafel the Lebanese  movie directed by Michel Kammoun  would be the first movie to review on my blog, I love watching movies, all kinds of them from all countries we just need to exclude the commercial ones, I really like criticizing them even though I’m not in a position to do so but I do it anyway, so I chose to start with a movie I picked from the library, I was seduced with the fact that  it was shot in Beirut one of those cities that held a certain mysterious charm, I hopped it would turn out good and I wasn’t disappointed even though I didn’t fully get what was happening. 

The movie follows a weekend evening of Toufic’s life, a young Lebanese man strolling around Beirut, so you can expect anything, especially that Toufic has a bunch of really good friends, the movie would take you on a journey full of emotions on Toufic’s motorbike.

The rest of this review would hold some spoilers so don’t blame me afterwards, even though you would still enjoy watching the movie even after reading it;

So Falafel is a 2006 lebanise film written and directed by Michel Kammoun, Michel Kammoun would take us to discaver Toufic’s word, we would meet his friends, his family and some random people that happened to be there. I really enjoyed this movie but also got confused at some parts of it, so let’s start with:

The things I did really enjoy: 

• The random people Toufic met during that evening:

From the barber who was lecturing about how it would be profitable for the Lebanese’s economy to get use of girl’s dancing skills, to the man who got him the gun and a bunch of other who happened to cross Toufic’s road, some of them were hilarious other not so much,they just made the movie really funny.

• Toufic’s really funny and caring  friends:

if there is there something we got to really know about Toufic, is that he has some really good friends, through the movie they turned from funny to caring to really loyal, they just stood there with toufic like he stood with them when they needed him, friendship was one of the theme of this movie that made it worth watching.

• Toufic’s motorbike:

Half of the movie took place on Toufic motorbike, strolling on beirouth's roads, the main character went through all the emotions riding it happy, sad, in love, confused, angry. I felt so sad about what happened to it by the end of the movie.

• The relationship between Toufic and his brother:

The movie didn’t let us know much about Toufic’s family, but it was a really clear that he held a special relationship with his mom and little brother, especially by the end of the movie, where the brother would calm down Toufic and made him change his revenge plans by doing nothing by just being there.

The things that I just couldn't get:

• Falafel:

To tell the truth, I didn’t get the relationship between the FALAFEL and the movie’s story, first of all I didn’t even know what FALAFEL was, well through the movie I got to know that it was a popular Lebanese street food and from the talk of the the men who offered some to Toufic that it has a special connotation, but I just can't figure out the relationship between it and what happened to Toufic through out the movie, at some part of the movie it even starts raining FALAFEL, which was really odd and made me a bit confused.

• Toufic’s anger:

One of the things I also couldn’t get was Toufic’s anger by the middle of the movie, well I understand that being in an unfair situation could make a young man angry but not to the extent of buying a gun and aiming to kill, that part of the movie wasn’t fun at all, it revealed a side of Toufic's personnalité that you wouldn't think was there, and how litlle we knew about him.

To sum up I really like this movie, maybe it won’t be the case for everyone, but I enjoyed it, the movie just delivers what it promises, an evening of a Lebanese student life, if I’ll have to rate it I’ll give it B. 

This is the movie trailer:

Recent reads #7

Here we go, another recent reads post, my favorite one to write, I just feel happy writing about the books I read, happy that with all the stress I'm going through I managed to read all those books. half of them are graphic novels, I feel like I discovered my new favorite thing, I didn't know that they could be so interesting so diverse, I guess they are just like other novels, so the books I read in the past weeks are:

Blankets, Manteau de neige by GRAIG THOMPSON: this book tells the story of the author himself, about his childhood when he was sharing his bed with his little brother, but mostly about his teens, his first love and his struggle with religion, and his fear of the future, this book was funny, sad, and confusing at times I really liked it, everything is so real and anyone could relate to some part of this book, maybe because we kind of go through the same things on our road to adulthood.

Asterios Polyp by DAVID MAZZUCCHELLI: I don’t know what to say about this graphic novel beside that it wasn’t easy for me understand what was happening in the beginning, but once I got used to it, it just blow my mind, the story is about this professor who thinks that he already knows everything about this world, he has this way of thinking that blocks creativity and diversity, but something would happen and would make him go on this journey where he would rediscover himself, this book was just amazing.

J’aurai adoré etre ethnologue by MARGAUX MOTIN: this GN is the first tome of a trilogy, I already read the third one of it which was good,  this tome wasn’t as good as the third one but it was readable, the hole series is about diaries of Margaux it’s not deep or anything it’ just fun to read sometimes even sallow but it’s ok I’m not  planning to read the second tome I think I got enough of Margaux

Dans l’ombre de charonne by Désirée and Alain FRAPPIER this GN is the testimony of Maryse Douek about what happened during the manifestation of metro charonne against fascism and for peace at algeria where 9 died  and 250 got injured, the book discusses the problimatic of the state using violence and brutality on people who were peacefully manifesting against some state’s decisions. killing innocent people just like that and never recognize that what happened was a crime made Maryse collaborate on doing this GN it was really frustrating to know that even in france the country of human rights those kinds of things happened  

الخبز الحافي by Mohamed chokri I was really hesitant to read this book I have heard a lot about how violent and disgusting it is but it was ok it was real and true that’s all, the book is the biographie of the author and it happened that he had a really hard childhood that’s all I’m glad I read this book and I’ll definitely read other books Mohamed chokri

1Q84 by HARUKI MURAKAMI, I bought this book because one I LOVE Haruki Murakami, two the title is inspired by one of my favorite books 1984 by george orwell, three it was so cheap, I was so happy to purchase it until I noticed it was only the first part of trilogy, I was hesitant to read it because I knew I would love it and I won't be able to find the second and the third books, and what I feared happened, the book is just amazing it was hard to get into it at first but once into it I was hooked I couldn't stop reading. I'm really sad that i'm not able to read the rest of the series.

The metamorphosis by KAFKA, my first book by this well known author, and I wasn't disappointed the story of this book isn't a regular one, it starts with our main character waking up to find himself an insect, I went through all the emotions while reading this book, I won't lie my eyes kind of teared up by the end of the story.

Books are all we need to make this life less bitter, I can't understand how some people who can read just go through this life without reading just how ?

Things to do on the beach

Not long ago I went to Taghazout with my sisters, a beach 15 kms away from Agadir, the weather was so windy but that did not prevent us from having fun, we didn't swim but we did other bunch of things to enjoy our time there, and in this post I’ll suggest some activities you can do on the beach when you can't swim, because sometimes times sitting there looking at the waves can get a little bit boring:

 1- Take a walk around the village or the shops close to the beach:

Taghazout is a small fishing village not much to see in it, but who knows what you can discover there, I bought from it a postcard till now I don’t know to whom send it.

the world's first pizza hot restaurant

Taghazout beach is famous for surfing

2- Take a book with you:

Just take it with you, you’ll never know maybe you’ll read it, it all depends on your mood and the people you are with, I took with me the book I was reading at that time the metamorphose by KAFKA.

3- Play any card games:
There is a lot of card games really fun to play with, I like the ones with questions about culture, you discover that you are not the only ignorant one among your friends.

4- Make a rainbow:

My rainbow isn't as good as the one I saw on the dainty squid but I tried, it was my first time making one and it was really fun making it and this how you make one:

collect  garbage which in morocco is so easy

sort them by color

then shape them as a square or a hearth or what ever you want,

How cute is my friend

5- Take plenty of pictures:

so those are all the things we did on the beach, it was a fun day, Taghazout beach was a really beautiful place to visit, if you are around don't forget to visit it;

Recent reads #6

It was a while now that I didn't write a recent reads post, so it’s time to do it. I have been reading some really interesting books, in fact if you visit my goodreads account you would notice that all the books I rated lately have either 4 stars or 5 stars and that’s mainly because I became aware of the books I would enjoy just by the title and the author. it's like I finally found the genre that I prefer, it was a while now that I gave up on a book I started reading which is a good thing, right?

The first book I'm going to start with is Kafka on shore by haruki murakami;

This book introduced me to the surrealist genre, the book follows the story of two characters kafka a fifteen year old boy who runs away from his home and Nakata a man who can speak with cats, every thing that happens in this book is so random, it was like rereading alice in wonderland again, I don't know if there is some deep philosophical explanations to what happens in this book, all I know is that I really enjoyed it, it's now a month that I finished it but I still remember every character on it even the cats Nakata spoke with.

The next books I read were le deuxieme sexe by Simone de Beauvoir and the vagina monologues by Eve Ensler;

When I was looking for books about the feminist movement, those two books would always show up, so I started with them, le deuxieme sexe is actually  described by a lot of people by the feminist bible, I was curious to know why I know now this book is just amazing, it's like a history book written from a woman point of view, it was definitely not an easy read for me, and it made me sad to know how much ignorant I was about women about my own sexe but i'm glad I read it and I'm planning to read the second tome of it,

as for the second book which was the vagina monologues, I don't know what to say about this book, its idea is just genius, the author asked a bunch of women about their gavina, and the answers were sometimes funny others not that much. coming from a country where we get no sex eduction, no informations about our bodies even our moms don't bother to do that. I found this book really interesting we should study it at school, well I know this dream would never come true.

The last books I’m going to talk about are all graphic novels, I LOVE graphic novels I can read them all day long, well if I choose the right ones and this time I did.

La tectonique des plaques by Margaux Motin:  

Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney:

A Distant Neighborhood by Jirō Taniguchi :

Those were the books I have been reading those couple of months, I really enjoyed every single one of them so much. what have you been reading?