Inside Mecca is the National Geographic documentary directed by Anisa Mehdi in 2003. It depicts the journey of different people around the world to Mecca. It introduces the intimate experience of pilgrimage that thousands of people do every year. The documentary is primarily focused on three people who intended to perform Hajj. This performance of Hajj is one of the pillars of Islam religion and as devoted Muslims, they spent several days imitating the journey of Prophet Muhammed. They follow the frustration, excitement, and struggle of a journalist from South Africa, a professor from the United States, and a businessman from Malaysia. The documentary successfully portrays the main goal of Hajj yet it perhaps intentionally distorts the rituals that Hajj consists of.
The documentary effectively depicted the main idea of Hajj - clearing sins and strengthening the faith. In Islam religion, the purpose of the pilgrimage is to connect with God and deepen the faith by tracing the footsteps of Ibrahim and Ismael and Prophet Muhammed. It also involves imitating Hagar's search for water. It requires a state of pureness (ihram) and abstains from bodily pleasures, anger, and arguments. In this way, these practices give Muslim connection to the divine, so that now they entered this state of profane, they cannot sin or get angry. This film depicted these practices very well because they managed to show the intimate experience of each person. They also feel connected to the divine through Kaaba. The film claimed that if you have a glimpse of Kaaba, you are already lucky enough. According to Islam religion, they do not worship Kaaba, they worship what it represents - the house of God. That is why it is quite understandable why those people in the film got overwhelmed. For example, there was a scene when the professor from the USA starts crying and saying that she waited for so long to be there. She was vulnerable because perhaps she felt the most connected to God, which is one of the ultimate goals of Hajj. This connection is very important because it helps to resist human nature who tends to sin and fail the tests of Satan (Rahman, 1994)
Moreover, the cloth they have to wear during Hajj is white. As the documentary states, it is done to show equality regardless of your social status, nationality, or ethnicity. This idea of Islam religion is depicted effectively by showing these people from different continents are in the end blended with other thousands of people who are also in white. Perhaps this white color also symbolizes that after Hajj people are reborn, and in Islam people are born pure, without any sins (Lecture materials).
Lastly, perhaps one of the most important aims of Hajj is to make people better. Thus, the final day is dedicated to coming from ihram, and distributing livestock to the poor. Even the idea to chase out the evil from their lives is a good representation to sin less and become a better person. For example, the businessman from Malaysia stated that he wants to be "a better father, a better worker, better leader, and better subordinate". As a result, these core Islamic ideas that inspire people to be better and strengthen their faith after pilgrimage are captured quite well in this film. This is ultimately what Rahman (1994) states in explanation of the Quran, that a person is the only one responsible for their acts of good and bad. By doing this Hajj, our characters in the film are showing their human agency since it is in human nature to know the difference between good and bad and to choose.
However, upon closer examination, I can notice some intentional choices that were made to perhaps hinder the perception of Islam. Even though I appreciate that the film chose three people with a completely different background, it also seems that they wanted to emphasize that conventional Muslims are not welcoming towards "outsiders". For example, the professor talked about her experience that sometimes "true" Muslims questioned the authenticity of her faith. During the Hajj, we can see the way the radio host is discriminated against because of his skin color. This forms the perception that traditional Muslims even in the Hajj have these biases and judgemental prejudice as if these rituals are done superficially instead of fully committing to the experience with the whole heart. Also, the tents that were built by the government completely contradict the idea of equality. People wear ihram to erase any differences among people, but the tents offer VIP surfaces for those who are willing to pay more. This highlights the social inequality by offering the rich more comfortable conditions during Hajj. Lastly, In the documentary, the ritual of casting stones in Mina to throw them at Satan, who comes to seduce people to do bad actions is ridiculized. They depict how some people throw away their belongings as well hinting that perhaps the Muslims take the ritual in a literal meaning. Thus, instead of working on themselves, they are willing to complete these rituals in an extreme way hoping that it might help.
Overall, I think the documentary is a good insight into the Islamic world of performing Hajj. It successfully depicts the motivations, expectations of Muslims who decided to go to Mecca. I would recommend this film to those who have prior knowledge about Islam to notice some details that were distorted. It is important to mention that this was filmed in 2003. Maybe the experience of Hajj completely changed in 2020.
Review of Inside Mecca
