{"id":373298,"date":"2024-08-31T20:37:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-31T23:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/?p=373298"},"modified":"2024-08-31T20:38:36","modified_gmt":"2024-08-31T23:38:36","slug":"a-movie-to-see-the-poet-in-king-al-mutamid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/a-movie-to-see-the-poet-in-king-al-mutamid\/","title":{"rendered":"A movie to see the poet in King Al-Mu\u2019tamid"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 \u201cAl-Mu\u2019tamid had been a poet before becoming a king. He was a man whose greatest ambition was to celebrate life in its poetic dimension through writing, and suddenly he had to face war and engage in warfare,\u201d says Carlos Gomes, director of The Poet King<\/em>, a Portuguese film that had its world premiere in Brazil at the 19th<\/sup> Arab World Film Festival on Saturday (31).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an interview with ANBA a day before the premiere, Carlos Gomes discussed the film\u2019s theme and how much of himself is woven into the storyline. The Poet King<\/em> does not recount the history and exploits of King Al-Mu\u2019tamid \u2013 it is rather almost a diary of a man who loved writing and who, in the 11th century, ruled the Taifa of Seville on the Iberian Peninsula and lead the wars that such a role entailed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The film originated from the director\u2019s experience when he came across the book O meu cora\u00e7\u00e3o \u00e9 \u00e1rabe <\/em>[My Heart is Arab] by Adalberto Alves, which features poetry from centuries past. Moved by the book, Gomes embarked on a personal journey to understand the poet-king Al-Mu\u2019tamid, whose verses were included in the book. At a time when this was uncommon, Al-Mu\u2019tamid wrote in the first person about his feelings toward his father, life, and war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The film portrays a journey by actor Adriano Carvalho through the places where Al-Mu\u2019tamid lived, while reading the poet-king\u2019s verses, creating a kind of life narrative and personal confession. \u201cThe duties of a monarch have always driven me away from closeness with men,\u201d says the poet in the actor\u2019s reading. He describes war as a \u201cfierce waste of life.\u201d Al-Mu\u2019tamid belonged to the last generation of his dynasty, following the reigns of his father and grandfather. Born in Portugal, he ruled in the 11th<\/sup> century and was exiled to Morocco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carlos Gomes describes his film as a “musical road movie”. Throughout the actor\u2019s journey, music in Portuguese, Spanish, and Arabic weaves through the cultures present there. For the filmmaker, The Poet King<\/em> is neither the linear story of Al-Mu\u2019tamid nor the actor\u2019s. \u201cIt’s something in between,\u201d he says, aware that it is also his own expedition in search of Al-Mu\u2019tamid. \u201cAn alter ego of my own discovery of the character, of my search for who this man from centuries ago truly was,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The discovery of the book O Meu Cora\u00e7\u00e3o \u00e9 \u00c1rabe<\/em> was, in fact, the second part of the filmmaker’s journey toward identifying with Arabs, even though he does not have any recorded ancestry. The first part occurred during his first trip to Morocco, when he immediately felt at home and was overwhelmed by intense sorrow at the thought of leaving the Arab country. \u201cIt was as if I were leaving my own place.\u201d The filmmaker\u2019s family hails from Southern Portugal, where having Arab blood is not uncommon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Gomes sees his interest in Al-Mu\u2019tamid as more than just ancestry. \u201cI believe I encountered him at some point in the universe, not in this time or any specific space, but at the intersection of my life and existence with his,\u201d he says. The filmmaker often contemplates how Al-Mu\u2019tamid would act and identifies with the poet king\u2019s conflict. The film\u2019s screenplay, also written by Carlos Gomes, is based on the book Cr\u00f4nica do Rei Poeta Al-Mu\u2019tamid<\/em> [Chronicle of Poet King Al-Mu\u2019tamid] by Ana Cristina Silva.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poet King in Brazil<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Filmmaker Carlos Gomes chose to premiere The Poet King<\/em> in Brazil because it was here that he experienced what he calls the \u201cmost extraordinary\u201d moment with the concert he created about Al-Mu\u2019tamid. In 2017, Sala S\u00e3o Paulo hosted the performance \u201cAl Mu\u2019tamid, Poet King of Al-Andalus,\u201d the first concert with Arab music at the venue, for which Carlos Gomes was both the producer and artistic director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI feel a sense of gift and gratitude towards the festival, Brazil, and the people who supported me at that moment,\u201d he says, mentioning the support from the Institute for Arab Culture (Icarabe), which organized the concert with the Arab-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce<\/strong> (ABCC) and the S\u00e3o Paulo State Symphony Orchestra Foundation (Osesp) as part of the programming for that year\u2019s Arab World Film Festival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 19th Arab World Film Festival<\/a> began on Thursday (29) and is being held at CineSesc in S\u00e3o Paulo until September 4, featuring 11 new films from the Middle East and North Africa. The festival is organized by Icarabe and the Social Service of Commerce (Sesc), with sponsorship from the ABCC, Arab House, and the Sleep Institute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more:<\/em>
Arab music and poetry a hit in S\u00e3o Paulo concert hall<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated by Guilherme Miranda<\/strong><\/p>\n

Isaura Daniel\/ANBA<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Portuguese filmmaker Carlos Gomes chose Brazil for the premiere of his film \u201cThe Poet King,\u201d which explores the dilemmas of an 11th-century Arab dynasty leader around poetry and war. The movie is part of the Arab World Film Festival. The director discussed his cinematographic production with ANBA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1455,"featured_media":373289,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[50779,9534,50780,28406,9535,5051,16285],"class_list":{"0":"post-373298","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-culture","8":"tag-al-mutamid-2","9":"tag-brazil-en","10":"tag-carlos-gomes-2","11":"tag-cinema-en-2","12":"tag-cinema-en","13":"tag-films","14":"tag-portugal-en"},"wps_subtitle":"Portuguese filmmaker Carlos Gomes chose Brazil for the premiere of his film \u201cThe Poet King,\u201d which explores the dilemmas of an 11th-century Arab dynasty leader around poetry and war. The movie is part of the Arab World Film Festival. The director discussed his cinematographic production with ANBA.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1455"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}