The Poetess (2017)

Directed by: Stefanie Brockhaus, Andreas Wolff | 88 minutes | documentary

There is a TV show in Saudi Arabia that, according to the makers of this documentary, can best be compared with ‘American Idol’, but for poets. Sophisticated and charming, you might say. The poetess in question Hissa Hilal (43), also a journalist, chose to ‘criticize’ the Saudi patriarchy in front of 75 million television viewers, wearing a burqa (eyes not visible), then in a niqab. Hissa’s husband agreed, her family doubted because of the possible consequences.

‘The Poetess’ is the story of a self-confident woman, rooted in a society where the worlds of man and woman are separated in many ways. “Being the only woman on a stage among the Bedouin is a moral crime,” says Hilal. Her words don’t hurt too much from a Western perspective – Hilal mainly criticizes extremism in a general sense, her tone and determination would not fit the role of women in the Arab motherland.

Fascinating, especially because Hilal looks incorruptible. But women in Saudi Arabia are not timid creatures because the man asks for it, it turns out. In one way or another, this formal culture is easy to fathom, and not cast in concrete. Women are very adapted, because otherwise they would not be able to survive. That’s why there is a dress code, but women also support each other, and bicker with men in the best feminine tradition.

A strongly formally limited society, however much we may disapprove of it from a Western perspective, is livable if you adapt, Hilal shows. More than her unique story, this documentary shows how the role of women in Saudi Arabia has historically evolved. Hilal, for example, says plainly that abroad she would go out without a face covering. From behind her niqab, and in the theatrical setting of the western-looking television show, she machine-guns her words as a socially engaged poet, and makes an impression.

Also to the western viewer, who could easily take her poetry for threatening Koran mumbling. However, the form allows for a different content, because form is dominant in such societies. And there was Hilal, with her perspective on the need for fatwas. A man won the poetry competition, ‘it was inevitable’, but Hilal’s voice was heard. What ultimately makes ‘The Poetess’ worthwhile is the insight into a world that is not our own: a world that is far removed from the informal Netherlands, where absolute freedom has been elevated to the norm.