Artist on integration: "We feel the same things regardless of culture"

At the Malmö Arab Film Festival on10th April, Maher Abdel Aziz, Bromölla, was awarded the "Film Centrum Syd Award". He was given 30,000 crowns for the short film "A flat for rent"

All of Aziz’s art reflects integration in Sweden. So will the film he’s going to record. A film about the similarities between humans when it comes to emotions; irrespective of other differences.

– We feel the same things, regardless of culture.

The film is about someone renting an apartment. Maher Abdel Aziz plans to start recording this summer.

– Integration is often about food. But I don’t know who you are just because I know what you eat. Those who shape culture are also those who shape our consciousness and subconscious.

He has selected 35 different well-known personalities from seven different cultures who live or have lived in Sweden. They come from Syrian, Afghan, Iranian and Swedish backgrounds, amongst others.

From Sweden, for example, he has chosen Selma Lagerlöf, Astrid Lindgren, Alfred Nobel, Greta Garbo and Olof Palme.

– I’m from Palestine myself. Mahmoud Darwish is a well-known poet from there. But if you ask a Swedish person, they won’t know who he is.

– It’s the same thing if you ask someone from Palestine who Greta Garbo is, they don’t know.

Here, Maher Abdel Aziz has found a flaw in the integration process. We often know more about food from different cultures than the culture itself.

– We don’t know each other so well. But if we want to get to know each other in a multicultural society, we have to get to know the people who have played important roles in our cultural lives.

– If I know something about the people who have shaped your culture, it will be easier to get to know you, says Maher Abdel Aziz.