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| Wahm El-Hobb, Synopsis |
Written and directed by Lenin El-Ramly
Love is but the figment
of our own imagining.
Had it never existed,
we would have had to invent it.
English synopsis by
Hazem Azmy, Coordinator of the Cardenio in Egypt Project
* By way of Overture: In the initial blackout, we hear the voice of a young
woman asking a man to choose either “life” or “non-life”. He needs some
time to think, he says, but she is only willing to give him three seconds.
* Anees’s estate in Upper Egypt: We see Walid sitting in the balcony
recollecting, in the span of two minutes, everything that transpired
during the past few hours. Images, lines of speech, and events come back
to his mind in the form of disconnected fragments lacking in any proper
chronological order.
* Walid remembers his arrival at the estate to attend the ceremony of
signing the marriage contract between his best friend Anees and Kamla, a
young painter whomWalid had known long before she met her fiancé.
Walid appears to be in a jovial mood and tells everyone he must leave in a
short while due to other commitments.
* Anees, a wealthy businessman in his mid-thirties and the unrepentant
survivor of two failed marriages, has invited a small group of his friends
to stay the night so that they may attend his wedding party on the next
day. After the party, he intends to travel with his wife to for their
honeymoon. We see Adam and his wife Sally as well as Dalia, Sally’s veiled
sister who has just broken up with her fiancé and is well known for her
acerbic tongue. Also seen onstage is an unnamed, chronically absentminded
young man to whom Anees refers as D.J. We know from Anees
that he is a distant relative who is fresh out of asylum after receiving
treatment of heroin addiction. Next to arrive is Radi, a theatre director
with a penchant for histrionics, who brings along Suzan, a famous star
actress. Anees keeps repeating that it will be a night to remember. Kamla
is excited at the prospect of marrying the man she loves. Walid expresses
an inexplicable premonition about what will happen tonight.
* Walid’s biggest worry, it turns out, centres around his and Anees’s
alcoholic friend Adam. As we understand, there is a certain secret
between Walid and Adam that the first wants to keep – at any cost – from
the wedding couple. Walid’s anxiety turns into horror when he learns that
Adam has already spilled the secret to others -- including his
temperamental sister-in-law, Dalia!
* Traditional Music from the neighbour’s house announces a folk wedding
celebration taking place at roughly the same time
* Whatever possesses people to enter wedlock, Walid wonders. Continuing
with this line of thought, he confides in Kamla that he feels “unfit” for
marriage (psychologically, that is!)
* The village mayor hands Anees a piece of hash as “a wedding night gift”.
Anees seems obliged. The businessman, who does not rule out the
possibility of running for a parliamentary seat, heeds the Mayor’s advice
to call on his rural neighbours by way of congratulating them on their
daughter’s marriage. Kamla accompanies him to see the bride in person
and to give her some wedding gift money.
* We hear a bull roaring and Salma, the rural maid, tells the group that the
bull is about to “cover the cow”. Adam asks Salma to take him to watch the
process but she tells him that women and children are not allowed to be
present. Walid is quick to remark cynically that even the bull is getting
married. Adam tries to get Suzan to dance with him, but his wife soon
appears. Dalia comes back, having watched the bull engaging in the act.
She is about to vomit.
* Kamla is back from the neighbours’ wedding celebration with a feeling of
heavy-heartedness: The bride is only 17 years old, while the groom is in
his fifties. As we know from her, the tearful bride seemed extremely
anxious about the time-honoured virginity test known as the “bloody
handkerchief”. Sally is aghast that such an ancient custom still persists,
but Dalia quickly maintains that a forthright girl should have nothing to
worry about.
* Much to her surprise, Kamla has been hearing rumours that the seemingly
shyWalid is dating a lot of women. Walid explains to her that it is the
ladies who always initiate the courtship, while he, as a gentleman, is
bound not to disappoint them (!)
* Anees is back to tell Kamla he has agreed with the traditional band to play
in their traditional-style wedding party. Noticing her bad mood, he asks
Radi to conduct a rehearsal for tomorrow’s wedding procession.
* While all engage in dancing and merrymaking, Walid is lost in thought,
recalling poet Nizar Qabbani’s lines:
Love is but the figment
of our own imagining!
Had it never existed,
we would have had to invent it!
* Salma, the maid, enters to break the bad news: the bride has failed to
produce a handkerchief stained with her hymen blood. It has now become
clear that she was not a virgin before marriage, a transgression for which
she is very likely to be killed by her own father or brother.
* A mood of gloom sets in. Women and men, each group seated separately,
engage in a frank discussion about the intimate protocols of the wedding
night.
* Anees confides in Walid his own anxieties about Kamla. “Like a beautiful
yet wild mare” she can act impulsively and most unexpectedly. Last night,
Anees reveals, he and Kamla consummated their yet-to-happen marriage
– at Kamla’s own request. Whatever Walid says about her spontaneity,
how could she be so daring to initiate this type of intimacy? suspiciontorn
Anees asks. Kamla was, indeed, a virgin but, given recent medical
advances, how can a man be sure anymore?
* Walid begins defending Kamla against Anees’s suspicions, only to be
bombarded with a curious request by his best friend: to pretend to make
amorous advances to Kamla so that Anees may test her faithfulness
through her reactions. The astonished Walid is adamant in his rejection.
* The Mayor is back to convey to Anees that the band would be unable to
come to tomorrow’s wedding, in respect for the mood of gloom hovering
over the whole village. The Mayor predicts that the disgraced bride will be
killed soon. “It serves her right,” the Mayor concludes and Anees seems to
concur (since he must not be seen to undermine his own people’s customs
and traditions, as he explains to his bride, who now cries in horror and
disbelief). By way of changing the mood, Radi suggests that he and Suzan
play in front of the group a scene of the play they are now rehearsing. It is
titled Cardenio and based on a “lost” play by Shakespeare.
* As preparations for the scene begin, Anees manages to extract fromWalid
his “word of honour” to help him with his stratagem.
* All are seated to watch the play: Cardenio (played by Radi) leaves his
fiancée Luscinda (played by Suzan) in the care of his bosom friend Don
Fernando (played byWalid). The friend makes amorous advances to her
but she rejects them. Enraged, he tells her that he will force her to marry
him by obtaining her father’s consent: he is a man of great wealth and
power. Cardenio comes back to hear Luscinda accepting to marry Don
Fernando. He instantly collapses while exclaiming “Frailty, thy name is
woman!” Learning of her lover’s misfortunes, Luscinda makes a heartrending
soliloquy in which she asks God and the angels of heaven to strike
her dead. The scene thus ends, but Radi tells the group that he has asked
the playwright for an alternative ending.
* They play the other version of the scene: When Don Fernando offers his
love to Luscinda and she rebuffs them, he drinks a poison potion.
Luscinda cries to see the young man dying for her. As if by sheer magic,
She finds herself deeply in love with him!
* Kamla objects to the second ending passionately, calling it “unethical”:
How can an honest woman have such a quick change of heart? Radi is still
unable to choose between the two endings.
* Electricity is cut off. The maid comes back to tell them that the disgraced
bride has been killed by her father. Kamla collapses. Anees suggests
postponing their wedding party till tomorrow. To change the mood, he
proposes to show the group his excellent collection of Arabian horses.
Kamla, however, decides she is in no mood to accompany them.
* Anees goes alone with Suzan for a horse ride, while reminding Walid of
the “word of honour” he gave him
* Kamla is not pleased that Anees has left her alone while being in in such a
bad mood. Walid consoles her. During the conversation, he reveals to her
his belief that all love is a mere illusion. She is shocked. She asks him what
he thinks of the scene they have just seen. “What would you do if, like the
play, I come to you now and tell you that I love you?” Walid asks her half jestingly.
Kamla gets angry so he instantly tells her that he has said such
words at Anees’s own request. She quits the place even angrier.
* In the dark, the disgraced bride, Waheeda, sneaks into Anees’s graden.
She is discovered by DJ to whom she reveals her true identity. She tells
him how she was deceived by her lover, Hassanein, who eventually
deserted her (although she would continue to love him till the day she
dies, as she tells DJ). Having miraculously escaped death at the trembling
hands of her father, she has now come to Kamla to seek her protection.
* Walid is about to leave , but Kamla enters to tell him that she, too, loves
him. He instantly realises that she only wants to give Anees a taste of his
own medicine. Kamla asks Walid whether he was pretending when he
told her he loved her. Walid remains silent, but his looks betray him.
Kamla, reading an unmistakable declaration of love in Walid’s eyes, slaps
him and dashes out.
* At long last, Walid realises he is in love with Kamla. Kamla comes back to
apologise to him and tells him they should remain friends. Once he exits,
she suddenly breaks into tears.
* DJ andWaheeda again. The rural young lady is beginning to “feel
something” for the disaffected young Cairene, who promises to help her
escape the village. Walid appears and tells them he has been observing
their exchange right from the start. He comes back with Kamla who
embracesWaheeda and tells her she will save her life.
* Walid tells Kamla the secret: He has made a bet with friends that he his
will induce her and Anees to fall in love with each other. He has created
for both of them the illusion of love. Kamla slaps Walid again. Adam enters
and knows fromWalid that the latter wants to tell Anees about his
feelings for Kamla. Adam asks Walid to leave at once before committing
such a folly. The half-drunkWalid is unable to find his car keys.
* Adam tries to seduce the maid but is seen by Dalia, who summons her
sister at once. Sally demands divorce, and Walid fails to reconcile the two.
Adam breaks into tears and tellsWalid he decided to get married to
escape his feeling of loneliness, only to become even lonelier ever since.
* Anees and Suzan are back from their horse-riding. We know from the
manner of their conversation that the two are becoming increasingly
intimate with each other.
* Walid and Kamla appear together in the terrace. Suzan and Anees
eavesdrop on their conversation.Walid confesses his love for Kamla and
Anees thinks that his friend is only acting according to the plan. Kamla
tellsWalid she loves him too. Anees intervenes before the two are locked
in a romantic embrace. Anees tells Kamla he understands she is only
trying to spite him, and he asks her to forget the whole story and move on.
Walid confesses to Anees that he is really in love with Kamla. Anees
appears increasingly tense as he begins to lose control over the situation.
* Waheeda reappears, now awkwardly clad in one of Kamla’s more
revealing dresses. The mayor enters to tell them that the police is looking
for the run-away bride to save her life, but that she is destined to be killed
sooner or later. DJ takes it upon himself to save her.
* Sally leaves to Cairo. Adam dutifully follows her. Dalia realises she has no
one to drive her back to Cairo. Radi, in a taming-of-the-shrew moment,
orders her to carry one of the heavy suitcases if she wants him to drive
her in his car (instead of Suzan). After a moment of angry hesitation, she
relents!
* Despite Anees’s warnings, DJ elopes with Waheeda in a Nile felucca!
* Anees decides to travel at once with Kamla. Walid finally remembers that
he came by train and did not bring along his car. Kamla enters and asks
Walid the question we heard in the beginning of the play: to choose life or
non-life.
* After a three-second pregnant pause, Walid is still silent and indecisive.
Kamla is about to leave, but Walid holds her hand in love.
* Kamla tells Anees she is leaving withWalid and returns to him his gifts.
Still trying to recover from his anger and disappointment, Anees asks
Suzan to accompany him instead. The maid and the servant are jubilant
since they will have the mansion all to themselves, with large quantities of
food and other goodies available for their sole consumption. The sound of
the bull is heard again from a distance. He has successfully fully covered
the cow!
*By way of Epilogue: Walid and Kamla are seen in silhouette under the
moonlight. At her own request, he sings her a tender romantic song.When
the song is over, however, we hear a voice-over ofWalid still recalling his
signature mantra:
Love is but the figment
of our own imagining!
Had it never existed,
we would have had to invent it!
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