Achoura, la douleur des Chiites
Christophe Rigaud
2001 - 52 min - Beta numérique & Betacam SP - Couleur - France

Nabatieh (South Lebanon), on the Isralian fronteer. Each year, for a period of ten days, Shiite muslims commemorate the death of the Imam Hussein, grandson of the prophet Mohammed, who was killed in Kerbala on 10th October 680 AD. His death consacrates the schism between the two branches of Islam: Sunni and Shitte. The festival constitutes the cement of their religious beliefs.
On the tenth day, groups of about ten people, draped in white shrouds, beat their chests repeatedly and slash their scalps with knives. Blood streams down over their clothes, the words "death is our love" can be read on someone’s T-shirt. Behind these violent images, this film is a voyage to the heart of radical political Islam, where religion governs every element of everyday life. Fundamentalism is firmly engrained in this population which was abandoned by the failing Lebanese state after 15 years of civil war. Nabateh is effectively the stronghold of the hezbollah (a militia backed by Iran), and has been at war since 1982. Far from the belittling cliches of Shiite fanaticism and terrorism, the characters in this film present a fresh perspective on a particular way of life, a sincere fervour of which our Western culture is barely aware, and a religious practice which one would be most likely to consider "barbarian".