We asked female film and art critics to look at the Goethe-Institut Toronto's exhibition
Early UFA Film Posters: Projecting Women with eight visuals from famous as well as rarely seen or lost Berlin UFA films from the 1920s and 30s that portray women as heroines or seductresses, debutantes or harlots. Toronto filmmaker Marcelle Aleid SUMURUN take her back to her childhood memories:
For me, it was love at first sight -- a challenging one though when you look at the eight Weimar film posters and you know that you can’t decide which one to fall for at the Early UFA Film Posters: Projecting Women in the Goethe Media Space in downtown Toronto.
I was most taken by the poster for the exotic silent “Sumurun”, directed by Ernst Lubitsch in 1920. I immediately wondered if the film was a story from the Middle East, from the Arabian Nights, based on the aesthetics and the style of the drawings. The dramatic design and feel made me think that the film must be about some kind of danger, or even a crime. The poster really made me want to watch the film, all the more so when I realized the story is set in Baghdad. Traveling back in time, I was impressed with the level of costume design; coming out of 1920, I saw more accuracy in these Middle Eastern costumes than in some big budget films today.
“Sumurun” is a story of the fight for the forbidden love and the price one must pay. According to film history, “Sumurun” is based on an older German pantomime by Friedrich Freksa that had previously been turned into a film by Max Reinhardt in 1910. Thomas Mann saw Lubitsch’s version in Munich when it came out –and it influenced his later novel The Magic Mountain apparently.
All of a sudden, "Sumurun" started to remind me of a story that my mum had told me as a child, the traditional story of a woman called Zumurud. It turned out that the film and the story I remembered from home had much in common. I couldn’t let go of this possible connection and did some (Arabic) research to find Zumurud, and to find out whether she might indeed be the same woman as in "Sumurun".
The Internet didn’t yield much about Zumurud, so I decided to use the traditional tools and ask my family and friends. Everyone was surprised by my questions: What can you tell me about Zumurud, who she is, what is her story? I deliberately did not give a lot of background information as to why I was asking about her, I wanted to get feedback based on cultural memories.
The feedback I did get took me by surprise, two different stories about Zumurud emerged; one of them was about a princess whom her father wanted to marry to a prince before he died. She set difficult tasks for the one who would win her. Finally a brave knight was able to accomplish the missions and won her heart, they got married and of course he became king.
The other story was different, with Zumurud as a beautiful woman who attracted two princes who both tried to win her heart. I didn’t find a clear ending to this story, but I was thrilled to realize that this might relate to the female character in the German film “Sumurun”.
As a Syrian filmmaker and a huge fan of German films, I was taken by the storyline and Lubitsch’s imaginary power in reflecting a story from a largely unknown culture, in 1920. But my favourite discovery was lead actress Pola Negri, a stunning performer with wonderful facial and body expressions captured in the “moving” poster.
Marcelle Aleid is a filmmaker and writer born in Syria and based in Toronto. She was formerly the Project Director of Bidaya Media in the UAE, launching the Arabic Sesame Street "Iftah Ya Simsim", as well as the Deputy Director of the Abu Dhabi Film Commission.
Image: poster artwork: Theo Matejko, courtesy Austrian National Library
