Educational Media Reviews Online

Filmmaker Nadia Kamel has created Egyptian Salad, a documentary seemingly about her family and their pasts yet it is about identity in its many forms – racial, ethnic, political, religious, generational and cultural. Kamel focuses on her mother who grew up in Egypt, but was the daughter of Italians who had immigrated to Egypt and had no nationality, that is, they were not full citizens of either Italy or Egypt. Her family had also converted from Judaism to Christianity, though to marry her husband, she then converted again to his religion.

In large part Egyptian Salad is about the changing nature of national and personal identity across political events and time in the Arabic world. Everyone in the film seems to speak two or three languages and each generation has its story of cross-cultural marriage and family. Some of the most effective scenes are of Kamel’s mother explaining to her grandson what relationships and changing relationships are revealed and missed on official papers. No form, it seems, ever captures the complexities of identity or travel and it often takes more than one language to explain the form itself. It is a wistful story of the demise of cosmopolitan cities that were open to citizens of the world before and after World War II, illustrating that identity has become more polarized and propagandized since then. The multiplicity of identity throughout Kamel’s family (her own son’s father is Palestinian, adding another layer for the next generation) plays up how limiting monolithic notions of citizenship, nationality and religion are and how inadequate they are to capture real people’s family history and experience. Egyptian Salad compares favorably to the graphic novel and film Persepolis, showing a more detailed and multigenerational account in a documentary style.

One of the unfortunate weaknesses of the film stems from the complicated, multiple identities explored. One is not really sure who exactly everyone is and how they are related – whether they are spouses, siblings, cousins, or just friends of the family. A small device, such as a close up of a family tree, or more consistent labeling of the talking heads shown would have been incredibly helpful. It is also complicated by the fact that over the course of the film, the family – or subsets of the family, with friends – travels from Egypt to Italy and Israel to see yet more far flung relatives. While every reunion is joyous, it is clear that most of the participants, like the viewer, wonder who everyone is which prompts halting explanations referring to ever earlier generations and family configurations, complete with faded snapshots and nicknames.

This is especially true when some of the family goes to Israel. There is a lot of preparation, permits and paperwork as well as explanations to Egyptian friends and family why they’ve decided to go to Israel to see more family members who emigrated from Israel when that country was formed. Clearly, this is a momentous move that alienates some friends while revealing that other members of the family are in fact Israeli, though staying or living in Egypt. And it isn’t always clear to the viewer, or perhaps just the American viewer, why a trip to Israel is so much more complicated and problematic for everyone involved. Once in Israel, it is clear that the complexities and problems are felt on both sides of the family and across the generations.

Overall, the film is interesting in its complexity and shows the American viewer that few notions of identity are simple, even in the Middle East, where nationalities and individuals are often portrayed with a single, seemingly simple word – Arabic, Jewish, Muslim. Losing some of the detail about who and how everyone is related becomes less important as the film goes on and the main idea – that our identities are complex – is developed through travel, reminiscence and reunion.

The film is in multiple languages and subtitled in English, with some scenes in English.