EPISODE 22: MARTYR - Interview with filmmaker Mazen Khaled

Martyr (2018) When I attended BFI Flare a few years back, I came across a Lebanese film by filmmaker Mazen Khaled called Martyr which left quite an imprint on me. I was taken aback by its beauty and its meditative pace which along with its deliberate experimental flourishes created an immersive drama which subtly commented on Lebanese society and further contemplating ritualistic traditions, specifically around tragedy and death. Mazen’s choice of mise-en-scene in some moments is reminiscent of a renaissance painting, filtered through a Middle Eastern lens, telling the story of disenfranchised young man Hassan from Beirut, who sees an abrupt end to his life when in act of peacocking, jumps into the Beirut corniche, the city’s rocky seaside promenade. And what follows is a continuous, flowing montage of transporting Hassan’s dead body from the water through the city to his parents’ house. In retrospect I feel what captured my attention was the film’s tantalising homoerotism even if its subject matter isn’t necessarily queer. With copious amounts of explicit male flesh, predominantly of Hassan’s body, as well as his friend’s and an abundance of scenes of non-sexual physical intimacy between them. I felt that Mazen boldly queerizes a traditional Islamic tradition yet simultaneously highlighted my own affected Western gaze, which is perhaps narrow-minded in its view of male intimacy.I had the privilege a few weeks back to chat with the director himself, now based in Florida, over zoom. Where he filled me in on the whole process of making Martyr, its unintentional queerness and the meaning of martyrdom in Islam. Music: James Jones @james-jones-music Follow us on I: @ltcompanion / F: @LongtimeCompanion