An Eloquent Peasant at Films from the South
Watching the short film An Eloquent Peasant at the Lillebil screen at Filmens Hus I got just what you might expect: the film tells the story of a peasant in Egypt (between 2040 and 1750BC) who, through his poetic protestations to a local lord, successfully lobbies for the return of his unfairly stolen goods from a cruel overseer. The film focuses on the peasant’s nine almost-unbroken monologues as he at first reasons, then pleads, then attacks and finally gives up on the local lord.
Due to my ignorance of both ancient Egyptian and modern Arabic I followed the peasant’s speech through English subtitles. Overall I think they did a great job being, both poetic and (most importantly) eloquent. For a film that has the spoken word at its heart it was remarkably effective to watch with subtitles. The acting is humble, earnest and effective and the cinematography, like the peasant himself, is simple but beautiful.
However, what most intrigued me was the historical background and context of the film. This led me to do some (scant) research on the folktale and to write this piece. This would surely have pleased the World Cinema Foundation, one of whose goals in restoring the film was to help preserve Egypt’s cultural heritage.
The thing that intrigued me is that, as well as being a moral tale, it seems to contain an overt political message: you can't rely on your overseers to provide justice. In the film the landowner is initially too concerned with his own interests to listen to the peasant, or worry about justice. But the perseverance, intelligence and resilience of the peasant wins him over. The story suggests that the people of the time valued these attributes and wanted to explore them.
In his book, The Tale of the Peasant (Oxford, 1981), R.B. Parkinson, an expert on Ancient Egyptian text, observes the following:
“The irony of the plot, and of the situation (the contrast between the social status of the peasant and his elaborate discourse), were part of the appeal to the original élite audience. The text is a questioning of social and divine justice.”
This tale of educated, persistent, questioning of your social superiors was created by the elite themselves. This self-critical approach to their own divine and inherited right to give justice is, for me, a fascinating glimpse into the mindset of the most advanced civilisation of their time. The story was written nearly 4,000 years ago but still holds relevance today with regards to justice, social status, fairness and hierarchy. The content of The Eloquent Peasant seems to be a very timely, critical, anti-establishment treatise written by those among the ruling elite of their time.
This fascinating website shows the original hieroglyphs from the story. To modern eyes it might be hard to believe that the ungainly hieroglyphs could lend themselves to such eloquence. To me therefore it seems somehow apt that this story should now be disseminated by film: storytelling with pictures, modern hieroglyphics.
You can see The Eloquent Peasant at 20:15 on 13th October in the Lillebil screening room of Filmens Hus.
Alistair Spalding er tilknyttet Film fra Sør som frivillig i webredaksjonen.
Bloggenes innhold representerer skribentenes egne meninger, og ikke Film fra Sør Festivalen.
