SUPPOSING I LOVE YOU. AND YOU ALSO LOVE ME Transcript of a montage of voices and still images (2011)
by Wendelien van Oldenborgh with: in order of (voice) appearance, as themselves: Janne van Eynde Ahmed Chouyouhi Alberto M'vila Tariq Ramadan Hanane Driouchgril Annye Silva
Scene one
'PLACE'
INT. Auditorium, Royal College of Art, London; and studio 7, Muziekgebouw van de Omroep, Hilversum NL JANNE AHMED JANNE AHMED ALBERTO AHMED
That's here. Yes You recognize the wall. Ah, is it live, or what? It's a radio broadcaster from the old days. What did they play? Did they really play live? Yes. They still do. Really? (drums)
TARIQ What do you do with your voice? HANANE (laughs) With my voice? I laugh, I speak, I can be heard. TARIQ What is this building and what are you doing there? HANANE Just talking. TARIQ Are you broadcasting? HANANE I can see a large building, very high, lots of space. Primary colors. There are some rods hanging here. ALBERTO Microphone. ANNYE Yes, microphone. ALBERTO A cello. HANANE I can see a beautiful black piano. And the public. TARIQ
Was it, was it in the 60's? Or afterwards, it seems an old building.
JANNE ANNYE JANNE
Light Yes Lots of light.
AHMED ALBERTO AHMED
Do you understand it? A little, yes. Really? (laughter)
AHMED (reads:)
Because the architectural and urban concepts of space and spatiality were used as signifiers for the desired openness, unrestrictedness and dynamics of the new democratic society...
INT. Primary colors, glass, hallway TARIQ
Sometimes in the way we are dealing with, you know, the tensions between religion and modernity it is as if in modernity it is absolute freedom, and in religion it's absolute norms. And it is conflicts,
it is as if they are irreconcilable traditions and I think that you can see parallels in the way we are looking at these forces that are defining ourselves. INT. Looking out across a garden to the library, glass, reflections TARIQ
On the other side: this perception that modernity is based on rationality is completely wrong. You know, in fact I started to look at Nietzsche through the window of suffering, the concept of suffering. And then I came to this first book that he wrote, he was very young, he was 26. And he wrote a book where everything which came later in Nietzsche's philosophy is there. The first is: Art is the best way to define life. And to understand life. And art is all about oppositions and conflicts. And saying: “At the end of the day we get the essence of everything in the Greek Tragedy. And Tragedy is to be alone and individual and it is to face your destiny and your fate without having an answer. And he is saying: “You might not have a rational philosophical answer, but you can get an artistic answer through a process of reconciling the irreconcilable dimensions of life.”
INT. Upstairs glass hallway, primary colors HANANE (to JANNE) JANNE HANANE
You are... I don't really see you as a Belgian Belgian. Because your way of being Belgian is totally different from that of a person who, for example attends the College. So I actually resemble a Moroccan? For me, in my eyes, yes you do. (laughter)
Scene two
'SITUATION'
INT. Larger space, reflecting glass, bodies seated on a table, only seen in reflection HANANE AHMED
HANANE AHMED HANANE
And that is where it conflicts. Indeed, we don't form a unity, because we... For example in Belgium: all those who have various nationalities, or a different background, they come together. They will, for example, attend the same school. How many nationalities? It will be 40, more than 40. 40, more than 40. And this is also difficult because not everyone understands the other. For
example: one person is religious and the other one is not. HANANE
Yes, maybe you are used to that, but...
ALBERTO JANNE (laughs) AHMED ALBERTO
I don't think that a Belgian Belgian Belgian, A three time Belgian already. Or Dutch Dutch Dutch yes, like... always would think like that. Of course one changes a bit. Me being Black Black so to say, I am sitting here with a White, I will start to feel a bit different yes, but I would not...
TARIQ
Yes, in fact he is talking about the very status of the Chorus. By he is saying that it is in and of itself and it doesn't even need either the spectator, nor the play itself, because this is a voice for itself. (Drums)
HANANE
I think she is the only Belgian in her class.
INT. Staircase, glass, open and rehearsal room, closed TARIQ ALBERTO
It's about rhythm? No, it's about rhyme.
INT. Yellow hallway, closed ANNYE
It's about the public? (Drums)
TARIQ HANANE
No, it's about the collective. The collective unconscious, probably. (Drums dying away)
INT. Auditorium, projection screen TARIQ
When I was asked by the municipality and the university of Rotterdam to come and to be involved in a project, what was very important for me was not to come as someone who is alien to the society, as a Muslim for example, but really as someone who is part of the European society. And to think about citizenship. What is common and what is diverse. And to be able to speak about education, to speak about the job market, to speak about the diversity. It is not without risk and I was asked to come and then asked to leave, because this voice was perceived as problematic within the society.
Scene three
'FEAR AND SUPPRESSION'
INT. Auditorium, projection screen ANNYE HANANE ALBERTO TARIQ
It's about conscience. Is it about conscience? No, it's about the image. It's about the image. (piano)
INT. Basement, mirroring glass, dark HANANE AHMED, ALBERTO AHMED ANNYE HANANE
A wolf's voice? Auwa, auwa No, I think that it is a sheep, who, when there is a full moon, suddenly turns into a wolf. No You have read too many books, you have seen too many films. (laughter)
ANNYE TARIQ
About some dreamland. But you know, when you are scared or frightened by a reality and you don't know exactly what it is all about, at one point you can but laugh about what is happening, because you can see that you are going to create an image of the other or the reality which is justifying why you are scared.
INT. Glass doors to garden, reflection, light I think that here you are not talking about rationality. You are talking about imagination. It doesn't mean that it's enough to be rational to go beyond your fear. Fear could be nurtured in a very rational way. INT. Auditorium, projection screen and rehearsal room AHMED
I think there is fear in the Muslim community. They are frightened not to be accepted, but they also fear their religion will have to be adapted. And I think this fear is the same with those who already live here. That they also fear that they have to give up their way of life to those people. To for example us Muslims.
TARIQ
So the way we are dealing with our fears is very specific. It says something about your own identity and your own history. And your historical background. For example this young girl coming from Angola, you won't deal with her in any way like with someone who has not this history of facing death in such a way.
Scene four
'ATTACK'
INT. Rehearsal room ANNYE
I don't speak about it with anyone.
INT. Upstairs glass hallway, primary colors HANANE
ANNYE
You know, Annye, you know what surprises me? A teacher came to me. Well, not to me personally, she said it to the whole class. She said: “You girls with headscarves, you create a certain atmosphere.” And I thought this was something positive, so I asked: “What kind of atmosphere do we create?” And she says: “An atmosphere of danger.” Why?
HANANE
Yes. And really I was totally speechless, I could not say anything anymore.
TARIQ
I really think that the impact and consequence of fear could be suppression. Or not even acknowledging his or her existence in one way or in another. This is something that very often I face in many ways in fact. In my own experiences, for example with Rotterdam, where you have a state of: Oh, we don't want you here.
INT. Rehearsal room with piano, drums and mirror TARIQ
Because in the Netherlands today there is a very worrying atmosphere in regards to diversity. And political pressure was put on the university to remove this voice. Which in my opinion is exactly the opposite of what is needed: The university should resist the standardization of voices we have in society. Just to say: It is in academia that we accept these voices because this is where we have to protect them.
HANANE
Did you ever experience something in which you were very frightened? Yes, when my parents were being killed. Yes. It was a dark day for me. I came home with my brother and everything was in a mess. I saw blood. Then I ran. I just ran to a friend of my father. And never went back to my home. You never went back home? No. And where did you sleep, eat? Well, at a friend of my father's house.
ANNYE HANANE ANNYE
HANANE ANNYE HANANE ANNYE
(ALBERTO plays the piano) It is hard to believe, but... it is... I don't know very well how to explain it.
HANANE ANNYE HANANE ANNYE
And what was the reason that your parents were killed? It is because my father worked in politics. Yes. And if you try to tell the truth, you know. You are killed... yes... (Drums)
TARIQ
...is suppression, is to deny the existence of the other. To deny what we don't like in the other. To deny some of the dimensions that we have in ourselves. There is, it could be a state of denial. It could be a state of blindness and it could be a state of aggression, of attacking. Or, which is sometimes more subtle, is the way when you are talking but you are not heard. You know it is not a physical suppression, but it is: We don't hear you. It's just: say whatever you want to say, but whatever you say it doesn't matter. You are either not heard, or something else is heard.
INT. Large tiled wall with view on smaller staircase, yellow HANANE
ANNYE HANANE (laughing) ANNYE AHMED HANANE
I said: “But I don't know you.” And she says to me: “But sure, you are friends with my daughter.” And really, she was about to hit me. But in the end it was that she thought I was someone else. That was why: it was all a big misunderstanding. And how did it end? I thought this woman would offer her apologies and say sorry. But that didn't happen. She walked away, still fuming. Probably because she had been so angry. But did you not get angry? Oh yes. Yes, it made me very angry. She could have at least said, you know: “Sorry, I made a mistake.” But really... she didn't. (Laughter) (A short awkward riff on the drums)
Filmed on location with their kind permission in Muziek Centrum van de Omroep, Hilversum (NL) and Royal College of Art, London (UK). Camera: Ben de Wandel, Sound: Jan Samson (in Hilversum) and Rob Entwistle (in London). Direction and edit by Wendelien van Oldenborgh