₦airaland Forum

The film at the centre of the protests in Libya and Egypt is called Innocence of Muslims and was apparently shot in the US.

The full version is said to run for two hours, but so far all most people have seen is a collection of extracts found on Facebook and Youtube - with one trailer running to 14 minutes.

That inevitably makes the storyline hard to follow. Early scenes are set in the modern world and appear to show Egyptian Coptic Christians suffering at the hands of militant Islamists.

The latter, highly amateurish part of the film is set in the past and appears to depict the Prophet Muhammad, played by a young American actor, as a philandering, womanising caricature.

But a more complex picture since emerged since the early analyses of the film as a crude anti-Islam diatribe. It now appears likely that all references to Islam in the dialogue were spoken not by the actors but were dubbed over in post-production.

It now appears possible that the actors did not know the film would eventually deal with such controversial subject matter - and did not themselves speak the lines that made the film the provocative and insulting production that most commentators agree it is.

Early reports concerning the identity of the filmmaker, too, have been hard to verify.


Filmmaker mystery

The film is crudely made, with cheap sets and wooden dialogue.

Though the film was shot in English, a version dubbed into Arabic also now exists.

The performers are not well-known actors and some appear to be amateurs. The film was shot on video, much of it clearly against green screen with the backgrounds dropped in afterwards.

Initial reports - including in this article - identified the producer of the film as Sam Bacile, "who describes himself as an Israeli real-estate developer living in the United States".

The Wall Street Journal reported he had made the film with $5m (£3m) raised from 100 Jewish donors. In a phone interview, Mr Bacile was said to have described Islam as a "cancer", and said the film was political and not religious.

But extensive efforts by BBC reporters to trace Mr Bacile - through his credentials as a filmmaker or a real-estate agent - have so far proved fruitless.

Israeli officials quoted anonymously by Associated Press have also said there is no record of an Israeli citizen of that name.

The Atlantic spoke to a man identified in multiple media reports as a consultant to the film, Steve Klein, who claimed that "Mr Bacile" was, in fact, not Israeli, probably not Jewish, and that the name was a pseudonym.

The only reference to Sam Bacile on the internet prior to last week was the Youtube user "sambacile" who posted the 14-minute trailer of the English version of the film at the beginning of July.

This user's account was set up on 4 April 2012, according to Youtube information.

After the trailer was posted on Youtube, it was then picked up by some Arab TV stations and talk shows.

On the religious Egyptian TV channel al-Nas, presenter Sheikh Khalid Abdallah included a few scenes from the trailer, dubbed into Arabic, on his talk show. A clip from the talk show including scenes from the trailer posted online has been viewed 300,000 times.

The film has already had explosive consequences including the death of the US ambassador to Libya.

But at present it appears that fundamental questions remain about who made the film and why.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-19572912

MRbrownJAY: @OP
it all depends on WHO that girl is, and what your intentions are/were when you approached her.
some women are approached for the only purpose of getting into their pants (and some women fully know it and use that as a way to get a free meal), and therefore such women should be handled just as what they truly are.

so no two dates should be evaluated the same and there is no need to treat a dog like a horse or a donkey like a lion, its disrespectful to the dog/donkey!

is being single a crime in the society?

De-best:
I come across some delectable, beautiful single muslim sisters, out there, every day. I would rather you or whoever is CONCERNED, look for a "GOOD MUSLIM SISTER" to marry; and let us, avoid the "THIRD WORLD WAR" you are about causing here (because A CHRISTIAN LADY, REFUSES TO MARRY A MUSLIM BROTHER). Bye for now and remain BLESSED.

Most times I let the women misbehave.

Mrs..Chima:
It is a pet name I have chosen for my Oga.

Billyonaire: Bought it for her, i fell for the tears, only to hear from her friends that she said she faked tears before I bought it for her. I use 2. All animals are not equal.

Dede1: Cynthia Osokogu was the biggest fool in the circumstance that led her death. In addition, the Cynthia’s death is a damning indictment on the manner in which she was raised by her parents.

It is quit unfathomable a young lady will depart from home and travel more than 500 mile to meet with a male counterpart she has not met before this journey to a hotel of all places. What has happened to our social life as mandated by our culture and tradition?

yamakuza: i thot u came to quote the below. surprised no one has.

kandiikane: If you haven't opened it, return it to the manufacturer and get your money back and maybe a particle free can. You have no chance if you want to sue them for an unopened can.