A trip to Mecca takes a wrong turn – Blogging Sole

Good intentions lead to not-so-great places in Heaven at a Mother’s Feet, a beautiful but ultimately arduous road movie that tells the story of a Kyrgyz mother and son setting out to reach Mecca in a mother’s final days. When the Bible insists that salvation lies in making a pilgrimage on foot, the steps that Ruslan Akun’s religious drama takes toward the Promised Land feel increasingly exhausting over the course of two and a half hours, eroding any early charm drawn from a strong central force. The relationship between its stars Emil Essinaliev and Anarkul Nazarkulova.

Essinaliev stars as Adil, a mentally disabled 35-year-old who still plays with children two decades younger than him in a village that may be outside the city but is not immune to larger cultural attitudes about the mentally disabled. His mother, Reyhan (Nazarkulova), has done her best to give him a full life within their small community, but she cannot keep him away from a friend’s suggestion that they should travel to Mecca to ensure they enter heaven.

Reyhan immediately refuses to consider this practical until word spreads in the community, and gives in to her pride when she wants to correct anyone who thinks the two are unable to make the trip. There are reasons beyond the ability of an elderly mother and son to believe the trip is unlikely when it involves crossing seven countries, including war-torn Syria, but nonetheless, Reyhan got into a wheelbarrow driven by Adel and the two set out across the country. Mountains of Central Asia.

Going out into the open brings fresh air from heaven and earth as Rehan and Adel receive encouragement from everyone, from street vendors to armed Border Patrol agents who want to help them on their way. However, Akon’s insistence on showing all the people and places in a positive light begins to seem calculated when each destination on Adil and Rehan’s itinerary is presented in the same detail as the promotional film, with drone shots of any given country’s skyline conveyed along with its name in large, shiny gold letters. .

In those moments, “Heaven at Mother’s Feet” can seem as if its main purpose is to serve as a showcase for the region as a potential production center for any number of musical genres. During a comedy stop in Azerbaijan, Adil and Reyhan accidentally stumble upon a movie set, and Adil casts another actor. Later, on the way through Damascus, Adel dons a dynamite-studded suit after a tense standoff with terrorists.

The geographical and cultural values ​​of the area are portrayed brilliantly but do not bear scrutiny as there could be some actual drama. Despite the really interesting conflict when Adil and Reyhan fear what life will be like when they don’t have each other to rely on, their bond feels more and more inauthentic as Akun goes to great lengths to show how nothing will ever happen between them. (Only Rayhan can cut the wires of the bomb her son is wearing in Syria when she refuses to leave his side.)

It’s a shame, as Nazarkulova is quite convincing in expressing Reyhan’s unconditional love for her son without any embellishment, and Kanebek Kalmatov’s cinematography is often lively with lively colors while remaining gentle, keeping the film engaging even when the narrative starts to go off the rails. Quite literally, “Paradise at the Mother’s Feet” seems to lose the plot after the one-hour mark, when it temporarily switches to the perspective of a trio of truckers searching for Adil and Reyhan in the desert, and the film becomes more episodic from there. .

As is often the case with a series that exhausts its goodwill after too few sequels, Despair begins to gain attention through wild scenarios when the characters themselves don’t feel as if they’re enough. Adel and Reyhan may be able to absolve themselves of guilt by the end of their journey, but the filmmakers commit a sin when they do not trust them to carry the drama.

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