Lamya’s Poem Review: A Secret Animated Gem combines fantasy and real war

Lamya’s poem is a hidden gem, a film that defies the expectations of modern American animation but might resonate with fans of international projects like Cartoon saloons the breadwinner. The direct-to-stream release comes from non-profit educational studio Unity Productions Foundation, founded by speaker and writer Alexander Kronemer, who wrote and directed the film. It is about a bright young girl named Lamya (Millie Davis) who finds solace in the poems of 13th-century scholar Rumi (Mena Massoud) after being forced to flee her hometown of Aleppo Syrian Civil War.

The film explores three intertwined storylines: Lamya’s escape from Syria, Rumi’s similar emigration following a Mongol invasion, and a meeting between the two in a strange fantasy world where they encounter metaphorical beings that represent the dangers each of them faces is. Each of these storylines could carry an entire movie on its own. Lamya struggles to keep her head up when all hope is lost. Rumi wrestles with his desire for revenge, which overcomes his devotion to his poetry. And in the realm of dreams, the two meet and discover a mysterious city that is under attack.

Image: Unity Productions Foundation

When Kronemer brings them together, however, they sometimes distract from each other – particularly the fantasy plot, which occasionally undermines the characters’ individual journeys. Still, at the film’s climax, all three threads fuse, with Rumi’s poetry stringing them together, and it coalesces into a beautiful, evocative moment.

The beautifully rendered backgrounds help emphasize this beauty. Lamya’s poem has its limitations, particularly in the stilted character animation, but the exquisitely painted landscape more than makes up for it. The fantastical dream world has the most eye-catching graphics, but even mundane backgrounds set in Lamya’s hometown or Rumi’s desert trek are lovingly rendered. And this artistry is not only reserved for the rosy moments. Some of the film’s most difficult scenes – Lamya and her mother on a raft from Syria, Lamya alone in a refugee camp – resonate all the more when the setting plays such a big role.

Image: Unity Productions Foundation

Lamya’s poem draws parallels between the Syrian refugee crisis (along with the prejudice Lamya faces when she ends up in an unspecified European country) and Rumi’s own emigration from Samarkand after the Mongol invasion. These are weighty issues, but Kronemer avoids showing explicit violence. Instead, he uses poetry to stitch his dark storylines together. Lamya repeats a certain Rumi poem about reeds cut from their source

And that idea binds them together, just as the actual poem gives them a connection that spans time. There isn’t as much poetry in this film as a story about poetry would have, but that only underscores the importance of the particular piece that Lamya clings to, which Rumi himself composes in the flashback. It is a testament to the power of poetry and art and how it connects people over time and resonates with human truths that have remained unchanged through the ages. Lamya’s poem shares the transcendental effect that art can have by being a special work of art itself.

Image: Unity Productions Foundation

Lamya’s poem is available for rent Amazon, iTunes, apple tv, vudu, google playand other digital platforms.