Coming to theatres today, Friday, September 4: A SINNER IN MECCA
Parvez Sharma’s clandestine chronicle of a pilgrimage made its debut at Hot Docs earlier this year. It has since screened at Sheffield and at Outfest, where it picked up an award.
Already marked as an infidel as a result of his previous film, A JIHAD FOR LOVE, which explored homosexuality among Muslims, Sharma has put himself at further risk in this far more personal follow-up. Despite a ban on photography and a death penalty for homosexuals, the filmmaker set out to secretly film his hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca that is of the utmost significance to Islam. Carrying scars from his late mother’s rejection of his sexuality, Sharma hopes to find a way to reconcile his faith and his homosexuality, espousing an Islam that is more loving in contrast to the ultraconservative branch that characterizes the Saudi faith, and that of much of the rest of the Middle East. Traveling doubly incognito, hiding both that he is gay and that he is filming, Sharma’s struggles are largely internal – while others occasional notice his activity, there’s no consequence beyond disapproval, and no one picks up on his sexuality. The viewer is thrown into his hajj, selfie-style, complete with endless walking, massive crowds, and Sharma’s occasionally funny moments of snark, as when he points out the rampant commercialism that has placed a mall just adjacent to the holiest of sites. Even if the filmmaker’s post-pilgrimage epiphany that he’s somehow now a better Muslim is inadequately explained, the experience of going through the hajj with him is unique and transgressive – at least for non-Muslims – lending the project its primary fascination.
what (not) to doc 