A short film that combines Bahraini poetic traditions, the still-surviving craft of weaving in Bani Jamra and British labour history was premiered as part of a UK festival celebrating textiles.
The Legend of the Looms, the poem-turned-movie written by Bahraini author Ali Al Jamri, is an otherworldly debate between the ghosts of two weavers, one from Bahrain and one from the UK.
It was commissioned by the Arab British Centre in partnership with the British Textile Biennial and was screened for the first time in the Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery with an accompanying exhibition.
“The Legend of the Looms is a love letter to folk poetry traditions of both my homes of Bahrain and north-west England,” the 33-year-old poet and teacher told the GDN.
“I’m constantly in awe at the fact that I come from the village of Bani Jamra in the northwest of Bahrain, and I live in Manchester in the northwest of England – both with a history of weaving and poetry.
“I wanted to see what happens when these two histories, which don’t interact much, collide. I wanted to write something about Britain and Bahrain for a long time, but in a way that didn’t rely on tired clichés.”
At the start of the film, the narrator enters a historical home where a Lancashire weaver once practised his craft, only to dismiss weavers as a relic of the past.
When the weavers’ ghost hears him, he suddenly appears before him, chastising him for his disregard of history and the plight of English weavers.
Then, another ghost appears – the narrator’s ancestor, a weaver from Bahrain. The two spirits clash, but by the end of the film find friendship when they realise that both faced the same struggles, be it poverty, industrialisation or serfdom.
All three characters are played by Mr Al Jamri.
Following in the footsteps of his ancestor, well-loved orator and poet Mulla Atiyya Al Jamri, the London-born writer decided to create a literal dialogue between both cultures to which he belongs.
“I’ve been inspired by debate poems, which were very popular in the Bahraini folk tradition in the 20th century,” said Mr Al Jamri.
“The most famous one is perhaps The Debate of the Rat and the Ship’s Captain, which was written by my grandmother’s grandfather Mulla Atiyya, in the Bahraini-Arabic dialect.”
The Rat and the Ship’s Captain was translated into English and has since been taught in thousands of schools in the UK. And, although he died in 1981, Mulla Atiyya’s Islamic epic rhymes are to this day widely recited across the Arab world.
A century later, Mulla Atiyya’s descendant wrote his very own The Handloom Weavers Debate, and the 1,500-word poem was brought to life with the help of director Ricardo Vilela.
Set to a haunting score composed by musician Patryk Krol, the film was shot in a historical weavers’ house in Rawtenstall, Lancashire, which still contains many antique looms.
The Bani Jamra Textile Factory was also featured in the film, with shots showing weaver Habib Al Jamri and his father Saleh hard at work.
This being his first foray into filmmaking, Mr Al Jamri decided to make the jump from page to screen in order to reach a wider audience.
“It’s a very long poem – I feared that if I simply wrote it and published it, few people would sit down and read it. Unfortunately, most cannot sit for 15 or 20 minutes to read a poem in today’s culture.
“However, people are willing to sit and watch a film of that length!”
Mr Al Jamri plans to enter The Legend of the Looms in film festivals, and is also looking into hosting a screening in Bahrain in the future.
Along with the film and poem, the exhibition in the Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery also features an installation, which combines Bahraini and Lancashire textiles into one piece of art by fashion designer Ibukun Baldwin.
Titled Both Their Natures, Ms Baldwin wove together British felt with traditional abaya pattern fabric, created especially for the work by the Bani Jamra Textile Factory, creating a hybrid of Mr Al Jamri’s two cultures.
The exhibition is open to the public until March 8.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
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