IDFA 2010
Arab Attraction
Arab Attraction
Andreas Horvath
Austria
2010
118 min
World Premiere
Barbara Wally has been known throughout Austria for her outspoken feminist views for decades. But a few years before retiring from the International Summer Academy for Fine Arts in Salzburg, her life took a drastic turn. During a 10-day vacation to Yemen, she fell in love with a chauffeur named Khadher and became his second wife. "In every conversation, it was imperative that I become Muslim", she explains. "He doesn't want me to end up in hell." So this atheist Austrian converts to Islam, prays five times a day, and says goodbye to her beloved bacon. Directing duo Andreas Horvath and Monika Muskala pay her a visit in both Salzburg and Yemen. The heavyset woman with long, dyed red hair is a striking presence in the latter country. Together with her husband, she runs a local travel agency called Adensafari. But while her spouse spends his days slumped in his chair chewing qat or drinking tea with male relatives, Barbara can barely leave the house - a highlight of her daily routine is a game of dominos. is a remarkable portrait of a special woman who has drastically revised her point of view and now questions post-feminist Western society. Her switch to a subservient existence seems almost masochistic, or is Barbara just looking for peace and security in her new faith?
Credits
Screening copy
Autlook Filmsales
Autlook Filmsales
World Sales
Autlook Filmsales
Autlook Filmsales
Director
Co-director
Production
Cinematography