The only image Western media portrays nowadays of the Arab world is one of terrorism and religious extremism. It is as if the Arab world has become somehow inhuman, incapable of exchanging and imparting its culture, as if there were no longer room there for the human being in all its complexity. The West and the Middle East are two worlds with many differences. Each has its specificities, its culture, and its history. Throughout the ages, those histories have crossed paths, and exchanges and communication of culture, knowledge, and art have been possible.

I wanted to make a movie where the human side of things had a place at the center of the identity crisis facing both worlds, where communication is at the base of all forms of exchange—learning to give in order to better receive—where what unites and divides us is neither terrorism nor bombs but all that we are, our faults and our attributes, and especially our potential for transcending them in order to better acquaint ourselves with one another. Dance is one thing that can draw these two worlds closer—Oriental dance, as a dance of the ages, the conduit of a vast culture, one primordial element of a civilization. And Oriental dance as a belly dance, one of procreation, one that gave birth to so many beautiful “movements.”

When Ismahan imparts her passion for dance to Lola, when she tells her of that very particular form of rapture known as Tarab, she gives her something of herself, of her fears, her pain, and her history. As Lola imparts her passion for life to Ismahan, she brings her into a present made of hope and helps her rediscover what is most beautiful—and buried deepest—within her. Lola and Ismahan tell a simple story about two women of different cultures whose destinies are intertwined.