Joud - An Unconventional Meditation on the Cycle of Life

It’s sometimes amazing how profound a single word can be.  Take the Arabic word joud for example – such a short word but it translates to ‘generosity in the face of adversity’: something that could have so many inferences that it is almost difficult to believe that such a small world can contain such breadth of meaning.

Beautifully shot in stunning Saudi Arabian landscapes, Joud is a film and a meditation at the same time.  It reflects on the cycle of life but it does it in reverse and doing so it dares the audience to do something.  Take your everyday experiences and look beneath the surface; what seems to have little depth or meaning may be just the opposite.  The little things in life may also have a profundity which belies their seemingly superficial nature. You can also find out more about the movie at its website - www.joudmovie.com.

Yet what also makes the film unique and rather special from my perspective is the way that it structures its story.  To modern eyes it looks experimental but it is in fact drawing on an ancient form of poetry, one which even predates Islam.  It is called Qasida and what makes it very different is that each and every line rhymes on the same sound.  If you think that sounds like something difficult to achieve and still have poem that makes sense this particular art form was extended to such a degree that the poems often extended to over a hundred lines.

Take a look at these two trailers for the film Joud and I am sure you will be entranced by them.  The film dubs itself ‘an ancient poem for modern times’ and this may seem at first to be a simplification.  But then, you must reflect and perhaps see yourself in its depths…

JOUD is produced by Abdullah Aleyaf and Todd Albert Nims for Ithra in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia (www.ithra.com), in association with UK’s The Edge Picture Company’s production team.