Postcards from the Orient

Words by Lamia Barakat, Film by Sis Gurdal

From tales of Femmes d'Alger dans leur appartement to the colonialist gaze of Matisse’s odalisques, white-washed abstractions of Middle Eastern diasporas have been embedded into the fabric of Western consciousness for centuries. In a revolt against academic art at the height of the 19th century, the Orientalist movement was born, and with it a European appetite to explore unknown realms of the enigmatic East. As a result, romanticised images of opulent interiors, sex slaves and salacious fantasises stifle the true complexity of the many cultures and sacred spaces of the ‘Orient’. Based on this phenomenon, Director Sis Gurdal’s Postcards from the Orient is a subliminal retelling of the colonialist, Western male gaze and its hyper-sexualised representation of Middle Eastern femininity during the epoch of the Ottomon Empire – “he does not forget to probe: he decides not to see”. Along with synchronised words by May Ziade in voiceover, Gurdal’s abstract composition, burlesque mis en scene and use of method acting, the film sensuously unlocks the door to reveal the untold truths of the Orient.

Despite being forbidden from entering seraglios of the East, Western male artists would frequently use local women to caricature that which they could only imagine. In a surreal approach that sees ‘life imitating art’, Gurdal’s Postcards from the Orient sees these painted women metamorphosise into living, breathing beings whose bodies are physically bound by their onlooker’s gaze. From the beginning, we’re immersed into a sensory mirage of reds, citruses and cavities, as well as the echoing arches and delicate sartorial references of silk and gold.

At first glance, Gurdal’s depiction of concubines, courtesans and other women of the Harem seemingly adhere to a sensationalised, colonialist narrative – we see the camera seductively weaving its way through women posing for an unseen observer – “the man who speaks not our language”. Looking beyond the façade of scandalous whispers and exoticised tales, the film’s surrealist motifs subtly peel back layers to reveal the eternal oppression that these false ideologies perpetuate and preserve.  

Though previously bound by unwilling forces, we hear a narrator that reads from the perspective of a woman as she poses for a blinded Western figure – reclaiming the voice that was stolen from her. As the onlooker, we see figures with fragmented body-parts – half human, half armour-like stone shells permanently fixed to their lips, chest and hands – an artistic device used to punctuate repressive Western ideologies embedded within our psyche. As we lean closer, the metaphorical veil is lifted in short flashes and their true, complex emotions are revealed. Gurdal references the various levels of political power that these women exercised, from fearful, vengeful; to the assertive glare of the head matriarch in the final frame.

Reclaiming a history distorted by mythological deities, Western folklore fantasy – ‘bearing the prophecies of our fortune’ – these divine spectacles under siege are reborn in Gurdal’s phantasmagoria.

Watch Postcards From The Orient below:

For more work by Sis Gurdal please visit sisgurdal.com

For more work by Lamia Barakat please visit lambara.wixsite.com/lamiabarakat