The Taqwacores at Sundance, aka the Love that is Taqwacore

Some things must be written down, before they are forgotten, so that they are not forgotten, because they cannot be forgotten. Last week, many fans across the United States made a journey that they called their hajj to the Sundance film festival, to see the premiere of Eyad Zahra’s movie, The Taqwacores, and to see taqwacore bands perform. The bands traveled in a beaten up van, The Kominas from Boston, picking up Fimstrip in Cleveland and Al Thawra in Chicago on the way. By the time everyone gathered in Park City, Utah for the festival, it felt like a mini taqwacore conference. Most people stayed in a condo, lovingly referred to as a punk house. Nobody knew exactly how many people were in the house, and who exactly was in at any given point of time. Everyone was excited about the movie, the show, and just to be together.

The world premiere of The Taqwacores was on Sunday January 24th in Park City, with The Kominas, Al Thawra, Mike Knight, and many of us fans in the audience. We cheered wildly to the opening credits, as The Kominas song Sharia Law in the USA set the scene. From the start it was clear that this is about rebellion, but not without humor.

Eyad’s movie is based on a book of the same title, written by Michael Muhammad Knight. It tells a story of Yusuf, an engineering student, who moves off campus to live in a house, inhabited by people who are all Muslim, “from a certain point of view.” There is Amazing Ayyub, the Shi’a skinhead, Fasiq, the Indonesian skater boy, Rabeya, the Burqa clad riot grrrl, Umar, a straightedge punk, and Jehangir, a visionary mystic reminiscent of Dean Moriarty from Kerouac’s On the Road, a book that Taqwacores reminds me of so much because of its love of life, uninhibited by societal baggage. All of these characters are united by being outsiders, from a certain point of view, outsiders with a desire to belong, and to love Allah, in their own personal way.

Eyad’s rendition of the book follows the original very closely, and the casting is just perfect. Dominic Rains as Jehangir and Volkan Eryaman as Amazing Ayyub got into those characters so deeply, that I have a hard time now thinking of Domic as Dominc, and not as Jehangir. Volkan gave such a beauty to Ayyub, an overgrown, passionate, wild child that I want to see the movie again just to see his quirks and silly shenanigans. The beauty of the movie is also in its cinematography, where color is toned down almost to the point of being black and white, emphasizing the gritty surroundings in which the punks live. The soundtrack of the movie of course features songs by The Kominas, Al Thawra, Secret Trial Five, and Sagg Taqwacore Syndicate, bands, that have been shaping the taqwa scene for a few years now.

The Kominas and Al Thawra, together with Filmstrip, played in Park City’s Star Bar on the 25th January to celebrate the premiere. Many of us agreed that Sundance was a life changing experience, and the Park City show, the best show ever. Of course this is personal, having met the people involved, and gaining some sense of understanding for their struggle. But these bands create such beautiful punk mosh pit mayhem that would be difficult to remain untouched by.

Filmstrip from Cleveland opened the show. Their drummer, Nick Riley, was also a production manager for The Taqwacores movie, and his Cleveland Tower 2012 punk house was used to shoot the movie. Filmstrip is a band to watch out for, with beautiful instrumentation and guitars that soothe the mind. Natalie Hammingson described their sound in her post Taqwacores Make Their Pilgrimage to Sundance as psychedelic punk, which I would like to borrow here. Yes to the psychedelic punk.

I was taking pictures at the show, but when Al Thawra started, I could not help, but to abandon my camera and jump into the crowd as well. Somehow, the heavy sound of Al Thawra has an otheworldly feel, perhaps because they deal with transcendent subjects of justice and fight against oppression. Marwan Kamel rages his lungs out to the demonic sound of heavy guitars, all which sounds like an invocation at the end of the world.

The Kominas have a more playful feel, they use a lot of humor and sarcasm to deal with issues such as Islamophobia, hypocrisy, or homophobia. The great thing about the Kominas is their openness. This is their second show that I was lucky to see, and in each of these shows, they slowly convert the show into a jam session, where everyone is welcome. At one point, The Kominas said that they needed some dancers on the stage, and so many of the fans, the movie cast, the director, climbed the stage, dragged Mike Knight on it too, and joined in the singing and moshing right there with the band. At these shows, one cannot remain a passive spectator, an involvement is inevitable because the bands will jump down and play right there in the middle of the moshing crowd. And I think this is the key.

There are probably as many definitions of taqwacore as there are people connected to taqwacore, and that is a great thing because to me, it is about an openness. It is somewhat ironic that taqwacore is becoming a label, just by the nature of it being a name assigned to a group of people, but at its essence, it is about removing labels. About being an outsider who belongs, and who creates something beautiful from this tension of being inbetween.