The movie "Inside Mecca" produced by National Geographic Television is a documentary film about the Arabian city Mecca which is regarded as a sacred place for Muslim people. Not only for local Muslim people but believers of Islam all around the globe are also coming to this city to make one of the holiest things in their religion to make pilgrimage or in Arabic termed as to make Hajj. The making of pilgrimage is one of the five pillars for Muslim people. In other words if believers of Islam can physically and financially can afford making Hajj they will be obliged to do that at least once in their life. This tradition was done by the Prophet Muhammad and his followers and further continuing until our times. This movie professionally describes and shows the most important doings of Muslim people in the period of Hajj. In other words, by showing each step of making Hajj, we can see the major details which are made by Muslim people to fully and accurately complete their pilgrimage. In addition, the movie seemed to me to be describing not only positive sides of making pilgrimage but focused also on difficulties occurring during Hajj facing each Muslim and showing that it needs big patience for Muslims to complete their Hajj and therefore, this action can be counted as one of the ascetic actions for the sake of the God rather than just traveling to another city.
The movie chooses three Muslim people who are interviewed in their preparation to Hajj, their emotions and reactions to different cases were shot during Hajj and after that. These actors are selected from different countries and nationalities. What is interesting and catches my attention is that all of these people before the Hajj were showing their desire to make pilgrimage and they also showed they are not doing it because they are obliged to do but by the movie we can see their true love to their religion and the God. We can also see it firstly from their long preparation to Hajj. Firstly, as we understand by the movie there is required permission to go to Hajj for women from any man within their relatives or husband. And our American actress asks permission from her son which idea she does not like however she accepts it as a part of rule of making Hajj and obeys it. In the movie appeared other problems which were not easy to accept for them but they tried their best to tolerate and solve all faced problems.
This movie was produced in 2003 which is 15 years before from now. It is not so early from now and the movie is also very qualitative with good voice and well acted actors. The movie is also bright and instantly catches attention with interesting moments. However, even though the tradition of pilgrimage and its stages are not changing significantly, there could be added some changes of making Hajj due to constantly changing unstable world. For example, the documents required for making pilgrimage could be changed such as the requirement of the permission for woman from husband or any man within relatives which is nowadays sounds weird because if your husband or relatives are unbelievers or they might be unhappy with your pilgrimage. This may be left from ancient tradition and now could be criticized and turned into preferable status however it could also left unchanged which is unknown. Such kind of rules and laws for making Hajj could be changed due to time. In addition, the city of Mecca and other places for making pilgrimage could be changed to comfort the process of making Hajj for Muslim people which was described as difficulties for Muslim people in this movie. Therefore, updated movies should be produced about the Hajj for Muslim people and may be for non Muslims also to be involved in the process of contemporary situation of the Hajj.
In conclusion, overall this movie very well describes the details for making Hajj and shows how it is exciting to make pilgrimage and at the same time how it is hard to be patient for difficulties in the way of the making Hajj for Muslims people. However, as it is older movie compared to this time and more changes could be occurred after the movie was produced, it will be more accurate if updated movies about making the Hajj will be produced. Overall, I liked the movie how it is shortly shot and have described the significant facts about the Hajj and Mecca. Interesting moments and qualitative pictures with professional actors were catching the eyes of audience and made more interesting about the history of the Islam. My recommendation for further development of movie if it is thought of gaining more audience might be to document film not only from three people's sides but to include other Muslim people too with different cultural and social backgrounds which might turn movie into level of more entertaining and appealing to audience.
Review of Inside Mecca
