Rating:  

Rumanni Filmworks and Strand Releasing.

Written by: Eyad Zahra and Michael Muhammed Knight, adapted from the novel “The Taqwacores” by Michael Muhammed Knight.

Adapted from a 2003 novel by Michael Muhammed Knight, “The Taqwacores” is a well-intentioned but watered-down and frail look at being young and Muslim in America in a post-9/11 and post-Iraq and Afghanistan conflict world. First-time director Eyad Zahra seems to know what he wants to say but just can’t close effectively, leaving “The Taqwacores” an unfortunate disappointment.

Taqwacore, a hybrid word that fuses “Taqwa”, a Muslim word for “God-consciousness”, with “hardcore”, often used to describe punk and other forms of underground music, was a creation of Knight’s for his 2003 book of the same name. Knight envisioned a cultural uprising of sorts with Westernized Muslim youth and positioned that fictional uprising around an emerging punk rock scene, similar to the punk rock movements in the mid-70’s within the United Kingdom and regionally in the United States. Knight’s novel, which crafted an environment for Taqwacore to exist, permeated into Westernized Muslim culture and impressively, an actual Taqwacore movement started to form and grow.

Learning about the impact Knight’s novel had on young adults and teenage Muslims, one has to appreciate the vein that Knight seemed to tap into. The book has been called “‘The Catcher In The Rye’ for Muslims” by noted Professor of Islamic Studies, Carl Ernst, who teaches at the University of North Carolina. In the wake of Knight’s novel, bands formed, starting playing shows, and adopting the themes of “The Taqwacores” novel – themes which contrast the strictest of Muslim beliefs with the Westernized world that many Muslim youth find themselves a part of.

“The Taqwacores” story is built around Yusef (Bobby Naderi), a young Pakistani engineering student who is in need of some off-campus housing. He finds a vacancy in a building full of young Muslim students and Yusef feels that residing there will serve as a means of sustaining his traditional Islamic beliefs. Almost immediately after entering the building, he sees an Islamic environment he has never imagined. Graffiti and political protest statements tattoo the walls, certain rooms within the building are dirty, unkept, even dingy. One woman (Noreen DeWulf), clad in a top-to-bottom burka, speaks her mind freely. Doing so, stuns Yusef as it flies in the face of traditional Islamic convictions. Yusef learns from the de facto leader of the building, Umar (Nav Mann), that the house is receptive to all believers in Islam, including recent converts. Shot in Cleveland, Ohio, but set in Buffalo, New York, a melting pot of personalities drift in and out of the building, influencing behaviors and ideologies along the way. During the course of the film, all of them challenge Yusef’s strict and structured belief system.

The characters, all distinctive of one another, are interesting at first and then seem to lose their genuineness as the film beats a rather repetitive drum. Filtered through the eyes of Yusef, these “punks” are seen at first as odd and distant creatures who play loud rock and roll, smoke an occasional joint, drink alcohol, listen to punk music, skateboard, are inconsistent with their prayer and blur the lines of what is viewed as haram (forbidden behaviors/practices). Ultimately, Yusef learns acceptance and through his housemates, he sees the world in a challenging and different way.

A part of me really likes “The Taqwacores”, but I can’t completely endorse it. The relationships are nice enough and as a viewer, I appreciated the overwhelming kindness and learned acceptance that underscores the film. But I don’t know that I completely bought it, as the entire film surprisingly cowers from saying anything bold or daring.

Not every movie has to make a statement, but if you are going to adapt a galvanizing book, which rallied a bold and new movement within a strict and traditional community, you might want to consider it. If you seek out and find “The Taqwacores” and give it a whirl in the DVD player, you may like it and even enjoy it. However, you probably will not have learned anything or gained any real perspective on the struggles Yusef and his Taqwacores deal with on a daily basis.

Should I See It?

YES

This indie means well and introduces conversation starters on issues of tolerance, acceptance, and a new perspective of traditional beliefs and ideologies. It is a very likable and watchable film.

If you read the book, or are familiar with it, this is something you will undoubtedly be interested in.

By playing it safe and staying on the surface, “The Taqwacores” feels like a fictionalized reality show of sorts that never offers anything insightful or deep. You watch it, appreciate it, but take nothing from it. And for a work of fiction that moved a community and created an actual movement only dreamed about by its author, you may wonder what the point of bothering with it all is.