The Word Saved Me (2009)

Directed by: Barbara den Uyl | 76 minutes | documentary | With: Rodaan Al Galidic

Rodaan Al Galidi is a well-known columnist/writer/poet who takes his ‘performances’ to many stages in the country. The film ‘The word has saved me’ opens with images of Rodaan Al Galidi in a water-rich environment with lots of reeds. Al Galidi comes from southern Iraq and is what is called a ‘Marsh Arab’ there. This group was strongly persecuted by the regime of Saddam Hussein, immense areas were drained and their culture destroyed in order to get this population group under control.

Al Galidi has fled to escape persecution. In a film with beautiful images framed with atmospheric music, he initially looks back on his childhood and talks about the memories of his parents. Several of his brothers are forced to live all over the world. He talks about his experiences in the asylum seekers’ centers where he roamed for seven years. He was not allowed anything, not working/not going to school/not learning/not studying and was slowly going crazy. He expresses the despair caused by the years of waiting when he talks about the twelve people he knew who eventually committed suicide there. He provides a confrontational comparison in the statement that ‘animals in a shelter are killed after about three years, because they no longer have a chance. He has been waiting for a residence permit for seven years.’

When his father is dying and he is not allowed to say goodbye to him by the Dutch authorities, he calls the Netherlands over. He leaves for Belgium, where the ‘g’ sounds softer and the chickens sound sweeter too. In the story of the film – which is characterized by a harmonious balance between the story about the human being Al Galidi and his tragedy, but also about his powerful craftsmanship as a poet and writer – we follow him in a beautiful atmosphere setting during a number of his poetry readings. . The fact that Al Galidi made it in the end is due to his language skills and the ability to express himself. The film title ‘the word has saved me’ is the only correct one in that regard. ‘You don’t need papers to be human’ is another catchy statement in a sublime documentary full of striking observations of Dutch society, which are humorously expressed.

How well Rodaan Al Galidi accurately observes a not insignificant part of the Dutch norms and values ​​is apparent from his following poem: “The first thing the Dutchman learns is to walk. Then cycle. And then lose the bike.” The story of Al Galidi is of all times and in itself not exemplary. It is the struggle against the rules of the system that threatens to grind people up. In addition to the film, the DVD has a number of interesting extra parts in which Al Galidi, among other things, reads the poem Magnolia and utters a beautiful lament about the Dutch bureaucracy. In other parts he plays a Spanish guitar and sings children’s songs. We can see that Al Galidi has a subtle humor in his acceptance speech for the Pen Vlaanderen prize awarded to him. In addition to an anthology of a few poems, he also gives a witty account of his first date with a Western woman.

A warm and soulful film with beautiful camera work about how a person is almost crushed in bureaucracy, but also remains a person in his fight against it. His melancholy is shown subtly, his humor is glorious and his venom is palpable but not resentful. As a human being, he has not broken and has remained upright. A poet who not only deserves to be read and heard by many, but whose portrait should be seen on screen. Filmed intimately and told poetically.