Educational Media Reviews Online

This oddly-titled film shows the final evening and final day of Ashura, commemorating the martyrdom of Muhammad’s grandson, Hussein, killed in 680 AD. Shiites gather each year to mourn his death at the hands of an Umayyad army. Mystic Mass shows the gathering in Nabatiyyeh, Lebanon.

There is no narration, only a small amount of on-screen text at the beginning. Most of the preaching and chanting has English subtitles, however. The result is at times slow, giving one time to meditate on the sharpening of machetes, for example, or the task of washing away all the blood at the end of the day; even watching them thwack their heads with razors to get the blood flowing grows monotonous after a while. Nonetheless, this is an interesting opportunity to observe a particularly interesting religious ritual, and to do so more accurately than a single horrifying picture in a news magazine permits. One can’t help but notice the camaraderie, and the wide discretion in how much one cuts one’s scalp. The elaborate re-enactment of his martyrdom, followed by a funeral, is interesting, as is the snippet of preaching: the imam calls on Ali to resurrect, and tells the crowd they are to avenge him. The whole thing helps one understand a bit better the Shiite yen for martyrdom.