'We were trying to raise awareness of Islam in US'

This August 1, on the first day of Ramadan, HBO presented the documentary Koran By Heart, a captivating look at the annual International Koran Recital contest in Cairo that brings participants from every part of the Muslim world.

The 2009 competition, as covered by Greg Barker -- a California-based documentary filmmaker and former journalist -- featured 110 chidren, some as young as 10, from far-flung corners of the world.

A sort of a spelling bee for Muslim chidren, Koran By Heart has been compared to the Oscar-winning documentary Spellbound, but critics have also referred to it as an American Idol-like contest set in the Middle East. While the film focuses on many of the contestants, Barker finally casts three main protagonists -- all 10 years old: Rifdah from the Maldives; Nabiollah from Tajikistan; and Djamil from Senegal.

Koran By Heart had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival this spring and could be a strong contender for next year's Oscar race for the best documentary. Barker tells Rediff-India Abroad's  Aseem Chhabra why he made the film and the challenges he, as an American filmmaker, faced to enter the world of Islam.

The film opens 10 years after 9/11. How did you think this would change the perception of Islam? Am I right to assume that was one of your intentions?

Sure, we would like to have some kind of an impact. We cannot change all the perceptions. I wanted to put a human face on Islam and to show, particularly to the American audience, that the religion is beyond the headlines and stereotypes. There are 1.3 billion people following Islam. These people go through the same kind of internal debates and struggles that everyone does as to how religion should play in their lives. I wanted to show some of that through some of the contestants and their families. The competition for me was a narrative device to get into some of these deeper issues. I hope that people will learn a little bit about the Koran and that the film will demystify Islam a bit.

You traveled to so many countries. Were you looking for a particular candidate?

The thing about these competitions is that there are 110 candidates and you can cast a very wide net and see what happens. We knew who was coming, and we had a sense of who we liked, but in terms of who would be the main characters, we didn't know until the competition... It's the kind of a thing about documentaries -- things change during the course of making the film.

Tell us about the experience of traveling to these far off places.

We couldn't have picked more remote places. Even logistically, getting from Senegal to Maldives and from there to Dushanbe (the capital of Tajikistan) was tricky. But I loved the access to people's lives. The Maldives is a big tourist destination, but the island we went to is not where tourists go.

On the islands where tourists visit, you can drink alcohol, wear bikinis and the local people do not bring their families. But if you want to see how the people live, you have to get off the islands. Life there is totally different. Every citizen has to be a Muslim, it's the law. It's a very conservative society and that was a great window into the lives of the people.

On the map, a straight Maldives to Dushanbe flight would be seven hours long. We went from this tiny island to the capital Male to Doha, to Frankfurt. We spent the night there and got this once a week flight to Dushanbe. It took about 36 hours.   

How did you get the children to talk to you? The girl in the Maldives at least speaks or rather can read English. What about that kid from Tajikistan? He is the most charming of all, and he talks very freely.

It was about spending time with them. That was the key. And get them used to the camera and eventually they would start to talk. They are children and they were shy anyway. But eventually all of them opened up.

For the longest time Nabiollah was just a sweet, good-looking child who smiled, but did not say anything incredible. But then at one point he suddenly started talking. Even when you cannot understand the language you can see his intelligence. He hasn't has much education up to that point, but he's a very wise little boy.

In Rifdah's case, her father says that she will eventually become a housewife and the mother and daughter think she will take up a job. It was interesting to watch the film with New York critics who were fairly shocked, especially because she is so good in math and science. It is really ironic.

I have spent a lot of time in Muslim countries, yet it is pretty rare to get into a family's personal conversations like this. The mother is very open that she wants her daughter to become a scientist. The father wants otherwise. I think no matter what her parents think, the girl has a very strong personality and she will end up defining her own life.

Were the Egyptian authorities fine with a Western team that wanted to shoot this competition?

In the beginning they were skeptical. They did ask 'Why do you want to film us and who are you? And why do non-Muslims want to tell this story?' They were concerned that we might distort Islam or not respect it. I had been in and out of Egypt before, so I knew some people who gave assurances for me.

Also Egypt is a very bureaucratic society, so we had to get many layers of people to agree. In the end, they gave us pretty much what we wanted.

What was the toughest part of this shoot?

The hardest part was convincing the organisers and everybody who let us into their lives that we had good intentions because it is about the Koran and it is so revered by Muslims.

I had to convince them that we were trying to break down barriers and raise awareness of Islam in the US. Once we got beyond that, everything else was a normal logistical hurdle… Everyone said that we are tired of being portrayed as terrorists and Muslim fundamentalists.

Did you feel like an outsider? Was your crew all American?

No, they were not all Americans. During the competition in Cairo we had 12 different foreigners in the crew. That's pretty big for a documentary. I don't speak Arabic, so I didn't feel completely inside, but they were very welcoming.

One of the most fascinating things you show is that there is not one version of Islam. Culturally these chidren are so different from each other.

That's what we wanted to do and going in I had hoped we would have characters from different parts of the Islamic world not just the Middle East. And we managed to cast the main characters that were not Arab. 

Within Egypt, reciting the Koran has a real tradition. Egypt is the cradle for Islamic tradition and culture. And it's connected to Egypt's role being the center of Islamic culture. The best reciters were from Egypt. That's changed in the last 30 years with the rise of Saudi money.

What's interesting is that as the Gulf states have become more prominent, they have influenced the way the Koran is recited. The Saudi style is much less emotional, and artistically barren. It's a much more flat style. I think there is a battle for influence, and I hope that with Egypt's revolution we will see that country reasserting its cultural significance within the Arab world.

It occurred to me that this was during the month of Ramadan and you couldn't possibly be eating. That must have been tough.

No we couldn't eat. It was hard. It was August. It was hot, with no air conditioning. They had fans. Egypt is less stringent than some of the Gulf countries where you cannot eat or drink anywhere except behind closed doors.

In Cairo, we could drink water. We kept ourselves functioning. But the hours were incredibly long. The morning sessions would start at 10 am, go on until 3 or 4 pm. They would take a break, then start at 9 pm and go on until 3 am. We worked very long hours.

It was really long and at one point Rifdah fell asleep.

I know the organisers did a great job, but there is no reason to have a 10-year-old girl recite at 2 in the morning. It was amazing that she did so well.

It is really a very warm and likeable film. I had an idea what to expect, but I did not know how winning some of the children will be.

Well, neither did we! We had hoped to get good characters, but the children were amazing.