Read More @HJ Spiritual Articles: Jordanian Film with Spritual Insight Darrel Manson

Transformation is often a key to making a movie a worthwhile experience. We long to see someone's life taken from the downward spiral it is in to find newness and meaning. Can such a transformation begin merely by finding a hat? It does in Captain Abu Raed, the first feature film to come out of Jordan.

Abu Raed is a janitor who works at the Amman airport. One should not make assumptions about the man because of his job. He is well read, self-taught, able to talk a few languages, has a library of 2000 books. He is, however, very much alone since the death of his wife, who he speaks to when he comes into their house. One day, while cleaning at the airport, he finds an airline captain's hat that has been thrown away and takes it home. When one of the neighborhood children sees him in it, he assumes he is a pilot despite Abu Raed's denials. Soon the children want to know all about his adventures. One day he gives in. He goes to the top of the hill where the children play and recalls "When I was a little boy I had dreams." He then begins to tell them stories about far away lands.

From that point on, the story is about transformations: Abu Raed's, the children's, and even a beautiful woman pilot whose family is constantly trying to find a husband for her. The interaction that Abu Raed has with each of them feeds their transformations as well as his own.

But there is a problem as well. One neighborhood child doesn't have room in his life for dreams. Murad's father abuses his family. Murad has to deal with reality everyday. He tries to tell the others that Abu Raed is only a janitor and is telling them lies. In time he convinces them, and they become disillusioned and in the process, their dreams begin to fade.

Abu Raed is a compassionate man. He has compassion for the children when he begins to tell them stories and broaden their world. He has compassion for one of the children who is sent off to sell candy in a better part of town when he should be in school. He even has compassion for Murad when he calls Abu Raed a liar.

Abu Raed is not a perfect person. We don't know how such an intelligent man ended up cleaning toilets at the airport. He tells Nour (the beautiful pilot he meets) that sometimes things happen that change the course of life. When we first meet him, he seems tired -- worn by the years and sorrows of life. He can hear the abuse that Murad's father rains down on his family, but closes the window so he won't have to confront it. He is frustrated with the way the children are treated by their families, but he seems powerless to stop it. He tries, but it just keeps getting worse. In time, he will act with great courage to set Murad free from the tyranny of his father.

This is a film about the power of story. The children in Abu Raed's neighborhood have not yet discovered the harshness of life, but it is beginning to push into their world. Before that happens, Abu Raed opens their minds to the wonders that imagination can bring to one's life. Abu Raed has found many wonders through his books and the travels he makes through them. He shares that sense of joy in a world beyond experience with the children.

Abu Raed is also changed by his encounter with the children. Through the stories he tells, he becomes reinvigorated. His life has meaning that has long ago been buried by the realities of life. But through the stories he tells, he also is taken out of the somewhat meager life he has been living and able to once again love those around him. His change is such that he in time will do whatever he can to deliver those in the deepest need from the powers of anger and death.

In this, Abu Raed is a savior. He longs to save all the children. When one of the children, Tareq, is sent off to sell candy instead of going to school, Abu Raed tries to talk to Tareq's father about it, but is rebuffed. Soon Abu Raed begins buying the candy so Tareq can go to school. But in time, it becomes too much. However, when the real crisis of the film comes, Abu Raed pays a price far beyond money to rescue the children in the deepest need.

When I interviewed director Amin Matalqa, he spoke of the spiritual experience making this film was for him, the cast and the crew. It is also a spiritual experience to watch the film and to find the power of transformation that stories can have, but the even greater power that grows from the effect one person can have on the life of another. Perhaps the viewers of Captain Abu Raed will find their own transformation in this story and begin to share their lives with others. What a change can come from a hat.