#ramy

“…all of Oxford shone like an illumination, and he was falling in love.”

I can’t explain how much I love these two ❤️‍🩹

哼哼。

(I am a Chinese and I use ai to translate my words, because I don't know how to say my thought elegantly without using my mother language.)

Alas, since I’ve already drawn it, let me explain why I find the young gay couple in The Tower of Babel so pure and beautiful. It’s because nothing truly happens between them—everything ends before it even begins. Only death can validate their feelings.

My personal interpretation is that, for the most part, Robin only ever feels happiest and most at ease when he’s with Ramiz. They can snack, tell jokes, do homework together, or Robin can even lie on Ramiz’s shoulder and cry. He comes to understand what these emotions really are only twice, and both times are tied to death. The first time is when Ramiz is shot dead by Letty. After rushing over and repeatedly confirming that Ramiz is truly gone, this timid and gentle young man fully realizes his own fury: “Our three years of friendship mean nothing—how dare you kill him? I’ll tear you apart with my bare hands.” The second time is during the flashback before Robin sacrifices himself. He returns to the day he first entered Oxford, to the days when he and Ramiz sat on the golden lawn, eating and chatting. Then, as if guided by a higher power, he suddenly realizes in the prelude to death: “That was when I was falling in love.”

Ramiz expresses his emotions very subtly. I wonder if this is because he’s Muslim—though I checked and found that anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment among Muslims emerged later. Regardless, just like how Ramiz refuses to drink alcohol, he might have thought such feelings were unspoken and inexpressible. Ramiz was probably the first to realize his own emotions, yet as a combative debater, he fell uncharacteristically silent.

When Robin asks him, “Why did you reject Letty?”, his reply—“Don’t you know why?”—is a line that’s both gentle yet despairing. After that, he never mentions the matter again. When Robin is sad and standing on the deck, letting the wind blow over him, Ramiz goes over to talk to him. When Robin breaks down on the overpass in his hometown of Guangzhou, Ramiz walks with him. That’s all—there’s nothing more, and there can never be anything more.

Salt of this Sea (2008). Dir. Annemarie Jacir. Heist film set in Palestine about 2 Palestinians who help a Palestinian American woman rob a British bank who refused to give her the money her grandfather left her.

Netflix original series, Mo, created by Mo Amer. Dramedy about Mo, a Palestinian American without papers, trying to stay out of trouble until his US citizenship is approved (he's already been waiting for 12 years). This just got renewed for a second season!!!!

Farha (2021). Dir. Darin J. Sallam. Coming of age story about a 14 year old girl trying to survive the Nakba in 1948. Tw: settler colonial violence.

In Between (2016). Dir. Maysaloun Hamoud. A film about 3 Palestinian women, one of whom is queer, in their 20s living under occupation. Heart-warming story about friendship, solidarity and revenge. Tw: sexual assault.

In Vitro (2019). Dir. Larissa Sansour. Breathtaking short scifi film set in a future where Bethlehem has been destroyed by an ecological disaster and two scientists from different generations are trying to remember what happened. This film is pure poetry and I think about it constantly.

It Must Be Heaven (2019). Dir. Elia Sulieman. A charmingly absurdist film about Elia Sulieman seeing parallels to Palestine everywhere he goes as he tries to make a film about his homeland.

The Crossing (2017). Dir. Ameen Nayfeh. Short film about Palestinian siblings trying to cross an Israeli checkpoint to visit their grandparents.

Ramy. Episode 3 of season 3: 'American Cigarettes'. Far and away the best episode of TV of 2022, and also directed by Annemarie Jacir. Ramy goes to occupied Palestine to make a diamond deal with some Israeli brokers, but his horniness takes him to The Other Side. I think about this episode almost everyday, it's unlike anything I've ever seen.

Freedom Is A Constant Struggle by Angela Davis. A book of interviews and essays conducted by Angela Davis on how systems of racism and colonial violence are all connected, and how solidarity between communities of colour are vital, using the long-standing allyship between Palestinians, Aboriginal peoples and Black Americans as case studies.