Not Quite the Taliban

Not Quite Complete...
Not Quite the Taliban wasn't quite what was hoped for.

Some interesting information was presented about moral hypocrisy in Dubai. However, the film maker's frequently-changing documentary subject, frequent queries to others of "should I include such-and-such in the film?" and his very brief and regrettably superficial exploration of morality and censorship leaves one with a taste of what could have been, but feeling denied a genuine full bite of anything.

It's soon clear in the film that the author has trouble focusing on a subject; he actually tells us he's undecided. Rather than giving viewers a "behind the scenes" look, his queries of "should I include this" feel more self-serving than insightful.

It was interesting to see what the United Arab Emirates displays when landing on a government-censored website. A censored site doesn't gently offer that it MIGHT conflict with one of many listed sensitivities; it says the site IS inconsistent with ALL...

Great piece of documentary filmmaking
I disagree with the negative reviews. I watched it for the first time at a human rights film festival in Vienna and was stunned. The documentary starts out dealing with the issue of hypocrisy surrounding sexuality in the region, but then moves to show the subject on the example of what happens when someone decides to do such a film in the first place. I think the fact that it records how some of the crew quit participating in the production after the movie started getting into trouble, or the filmmaker's discussions with people about whether he should include this or that particular element reveal much more about how suppressed the topic is than the interviews! The film is documenting its subject by documenting its own production, which is simply brilliant and I hadn't seen that in a movie before. Five stars from me.

Interesting film
I think it is interesting that people do not see the topic of this film. To me this is the story of a young man struggling to reconcile the apparent hypocrisies of a culture and, in doing so, determine what it means for him to be both gay and Muslim. I think it was not his original intention to tell that story but that the film itself arose from his internal struggle with this conflict. What makes the film interesting is watching him realize why he is making the film to begin with and struggling with how far he is willing to go. It is a very unique coming out story. I appreciate the honesty and his willingness to be vulnerable. And, in case he is still wondering, his mom is clearly a strong lady.

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