KAHLIL GIBRAN’S THE PROPHET

KAHLIL GIBRAN’S THE PROPHET played at Tiff on Friday night at the gorgeous Winter Garden Theatre. This film, which was produced by Salma Hayek and directed by Roger Allers, has no distribution at present. I hope that this is rectified since it certainly should be seen by larger audiences. It uses a FANTASIA like construction with animated sequences illustrating Gibran’s poetry in a wide variety of styles. 

 

The original book of poetry had a very slight setting where Al Mustafa is addressing the people of Orphalese before taking ship for home. In the film the linking narrative, written by Roger Allers, has a dark undertone. It involves Almitra, a wild little girl, her mother Kamila, and Halim, a Turkish guard who befriend the imprisoned poet Mustafa, who may or may not be returning home on his ship.
The story is well directed, with animation produced at Bardel Animation, Vancouver. 

 

I was amused to see that I recognized Nik Ranieri’s animation long before I read the credits. It was also nice to see other old friends from Disney working on this picture…along with a few of our Sheridan grads!
 

The art direction is extremely varied and most of it is outstanding. I was particularly impressed with Michael Socha’s opening sequence, which beautifully illustrated the meaning of the poem in a stunning technique. Tomm Moore’s and Bill Plympton’s sequences also nicely illustrated the subject matter and displayed their characteristic styles. 

 

One or two sequences were less interesting to me but all were a refreshing change from mass produced ‘franchise’ films, and the ending was genuinely moving. You care about what happens to Mustafa. I hope that some distributor cares about this movie enough to take a risk on it. It will do well in festivals and ‘art houses’—and maybe more, if people get a chance to see it. That theatre was packed to the rafters!

---Nancy