Popular Geopolitics / Movie Review: Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

GE2222 Film Review Essay – Salmon Fishing in the Yemen Woon Wei Seng A0002916N

National University of SingaporeFaculty of Arts & Social Sciences

Department of Geography

GE2222: Politics & Space

Year 2012/2013 Semester 1

Fishing for Geopolitics: ‘Salmon Fishingin the Yemen’

Figure 1 (left): Protagonists salmon fishing in a stream in Scotland; Figure 2

(right): Protagonists in Yemen studying the site for salmon fishing potential.

Sources: http://fishingintheyemen.com/assets/photos/image9.jpg &

http://fishingintheyemen.com/assets/photos/image10.jpg

Woon Wei SengA0002916N

1NUS/2012-2013 Semester 1/GE2222/Film Review Essay/Woon Wei Seng (A0002916N)




Tutorial group D05

Word Count: 2689 words, including references & footnotes



Introduction

“Salmon fishing in the what?”

“How is salmon fishing in Yemen even possible?”

These frequent responses from friends, when I discuss the

film Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, actually reveal its two

attractions: the Oriental mystery and charms of Yemen (through

its picturesque setting) and a plot so humorous yet ridiculous

that it becomes believable. Marketed as romantic comedy

(Metacritic, 2012) yet packaged as political satire, I examine

the subtle geopolitical travails of this movie by “fishing”

critically for geographic, political and geopolitical themes

in its production, portrayal and audience reception. Hidden

behind the postcard-perfect scenery and outlandish storyline

of the movie, I unveil the geographical imagination and

construction of places, and critique the conduct of politics

and public relations (PR).

Adapted from a homonymous novel by Paul Torday satirizing

the Blair1 government (Tookey, 2012), the movie features the

efforts of a reluctant fisheries expert Dr Alfred Jones and

investment consultant Harriet Chetwode-Talbot in attempting to1 Tony Blair was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1997-2007).



create the perfect conditions for salmon fishing in Yemen on

the behest of Yemeni sheikh Muhammed, with their seemingly-

absurd endeavour encouraged by British press spokesperson

Patricia Maxwell to orchestrate “positive” news on the Middle

East (IMDb, 2012a). Geopolitics sits at odds with the movie’s

romance, but this largely light-hearted and atypical romantic

comedy contains subtle messages – if one reads between the

lines. These messages reflect “everyday socio-cultural and

geopolitical imaginaries and realities” (Dodds, 2008:476), and

are worth studying as a genre of popular geopolitics. While

examining this movie, interviews conducted with producers and

“online forums” (ibid: 488) like Metacritic and Internet Movie

Database (IMDb) are analysed to examine producers’ intentions

and audience reaction towards the movie. Audience response

matters as films, while reflective of the producers’ ideas and

frame of reference, are ultimately made for popular

consumption and must be understood by viewers for its success.

Geographical Imaginations of Yemen and Britain



Several reviews on Metacritic & IMDb praise the beautiful

“postcard-worthy tableaux” depicted in the movie, of both

Yemen and Scotland (IMDb, 2012b). These reviews, however, do

not critically interrogate the framing of these

representations, glossing over the accuracy of such

cinematography and portrayals. These representations matter in

reflecting the geographical imaginations of the producers (and

hence the audience, in their complicity regarding these

depictions), which are based strongly upon the Othering of

dangerous, mysterious and Oriental Yemen vis-à-vis soothing,

level-headed Britain. The stereotypical constructions of these

places must be problematized because of the potential for

misunderstanding as well as reinforcing post-imperial

attitudes (Dodds, 2003). Hence the intersection of geography,

politics and geopolitics are strongly evidenced in these

depictions.

Sibley (2009) argues that self-identity is constructed in

relation to the Other: in other words, the self is constructed

juxtaposed to what the self is not, i.e. the Other. Yemen can

be said to be constructed as the Other in the British /

Western geographical imagination of Yemen and the Middle East.



Reflecting on this essay’s opening responses, the questions

“Why Yemen?” and “Where is Yemen?” demonstrate the relative

obscurity and distance of Yemen juxtaposed against the

familiar and proximate self that is Britain (specifically

Scotland, the scene of much salmon fishing in the movie). The

movie actively depicts Yemen as different from Britain: hot,

dry and sandy (and hence unsuitable for salmon fishing!), with

Figures 1-3 best capturing the contrasting portrayals. Yet

these images of Yemen are figments of the imagination: filming

was done in Morocco instead of in Yemen (Close-Up Film, 2012),

while the novel’s author has never visited Yemen (Rees, 2012),

hence he wrote based on his geographical imagination

stereotyping Yemen and the Middle East. Therefore what was

seen was not really Yemen but make-believe.

Figure 3: Protagonists gazing into the sandy distance in “Yemen”. Source: movie

screenshot.



The movie narrative highlights the misunderstood spatial

location of Yemen in people’s geographical imaginations. In

the opening, salmon fishing in Yemen was dreamed up as “feel

good” story by Mrs Maxwell, to counter negative news emanating

from the War on Terror in Afghanistan and boost “Anglo-Yemeni

relations” (IMDb, 2012b). Yet what has Yemen got to do with

the Afghan War on Terror when they are nowhere nearby? As

Bayoumi (2012) sarcastically exclaims, “because Afghanistan is

in the Middle East, we all know that!” Both countries become

commingled as the distant, sandy Other; their common sandiness

(Figure 3) is often evoked when either country is mentioned,

as witnessed when Ms Chetwode-Talbot’s soldier-boyfriend

claimed to be dispatched to Afghanistan or “somewhere sandy”.

The spectre of Afghanistan lingers in the movie, with its

political implications explored afterward.

The cinematography further emphasizes the distance of the

Other in the Middle East. Contemporary “telemetrical

visualizations”, like geographic information systems (GIS)

that capture images from a distance, are capitalized in

spatial representations (Hughes, 2007:982). In case viewers

did not know where Yemen is, the cinematographer zooms into



the wadi2 from space, putting it in perspective with the rest

of the world, locating it in a secluded Middle Eastern corner

nearer to Afghanistan than Europe.

Figures 4 (left) & 5 (right): Zooming into the wadi in Yemen (right) from outer

space (left). Source: movie screenshot.

This Othering in the movie is built upon the geographical

imagination of Yemen as mysterious, dangerous and exotic

wilderness, akin to the portrayal of the Balkan “intrigue” in

James Bond’s From Russia With Love (1967) (Dodds, 2003:138). Much

of this mystery and exoticism is based on its geographical

location and Oriental characteristics, while the danger is

founded upon the War on Terror and the Islamic extremists

living in the Middle East. While this movie is relatively non-

violent, signs of danger and looming threat are visible in the

presence of guns, soldiers (Figures 6 & 7) and plotting

terrorists.

2 Wadi is an Arabic term referring to a valley with seasonal streamflow.



Figure 6 (left): man totting gun spotted in desert; Figure 7 (right): even in

scenes of romance the armed soldier’s presence (circled) lingers in the background.

Source: movie screenshot.

Ironically, Yemen’s “picturesque villages” in the movie

mask the “real-life political upheavals” occurring there

(Stables, 2012). In reality, Yemen’s danger is worthy of a

“red warning” travel advisory from Britain’s Foreign and

Commonwealth Office due to threats of “attacks against Western

and British interests”, and described by BBC as “a haven for

Islamic militants” (The Telegraph, 2012). This terror threat

is then worked into the narrative stereotypically:

fundamentalists attempting to (and successfully) sully the

sheikh’s project.

The theme of mystery is closely linked to the concept of

Orientalism. Bayoumi (2012) argues that “Orientalism is alive

and well” in the movie full of “cultural stereotypes, clichés

and exoticizations”. She comes up with an “Orientalist

checklist” against which the movie portrays every Arabic



stereotype: religious fundamentalists who engage in acts of

terror against the (sheikh) traitor for bringing in Western

ways; pious Muslims praying en masse in the open; veiled Arab

women with soulful eyes (Figure 8); polygamous sheikh

commenting that he has “too many wives not to know when a

woman is unhappy” (ibid). These “essentializations” (ibid)

reflect the Orientalist imaginations of Yemen and the Middle

East by Hollywood (Dodds, 2008), aided by the clichéd Arabic-

sounding speech and background music in the movie.

Occasionally jokes are inserted into these stereotypes, but

sometimes they smack of mockery: Dr Jones, seeing the mass

prayers, comments that “I don’t know anyone that goes to

church anymore… on Sundays we go to Target3”.

Figure 8: Oriental Arabic women who look and dress exotically. Source: movie

screenshot.

3 Target is a discount supermarket chain in America; such a reference seemsout-of-place for a British movie.



In contrast to the Oriental Other, Britain (particularly

Scotland) is geographically imagined as verdant, rural and

reassuring. Much filming of salmon fishing was done in the

Scottish Highlands. The sheikh, owning several grand castles

there, professes loving beautiful, soothing Scotland,

especially fishing in its waters. Yet he looks out-of-place

fishing in traditional garb (Figure 1) in grassy British

countryside. Stereotypes of Scotland and the Orient are

conflated in a playfully hilarious way, with bearded men

decked in both Arabian kufiyeh4 and Scottish kilts greeting

visitors (Figure 9).

Figure 9: Men decked in Arabic headscarf and Scottish kilts greeting Mrs Maxwell at

the castle entrance. Source: http://fishingintheyemen.com/assets/photos/image7.jpg

British sensibility meanwhile is subtly constructed in

contrast with the ludicrous project in Yemen and its

(un-)believability. Every Briton who encounters the project4 Kufiyeh is a form of Arabian headgear.




finds it ridiculous and absurd, including Mrs Maxwell, who

supports the project only for the government’s PR benefits.

Besides the project’s “unfeasibility”, even Sheikh Muhammed’s

source of wealth is suspect, as a reviewer noted: unlike the

sheikhs of other oil-rich Arabian states, where would his vast

wealth come from, since Yemen has no oil (Metacritic, 2012)?

How then to afford such a gargantuan endeavour?

Lastly, the absence of certain non-British elements

indicates the producers’ subjective perceptions. As a British

Hollywood film, it captures ‘Britishness’ excellently: from Dr

Jones’ Scottish accent down to the protagonists constantly

referring to each other politely as “Dr Jones” and “Ms

Chetwode-Talbot” (Stables, 2012). Yet where is America, or the

Yemeni government? Why is Britain, presumably America’s junior

partner in the War on Terror, playing “lead role” (Kettell,

2011) and being more concerned about PR than America? This

seems an exclusively British project to boost “Anglo-Yemeni”

relations (not Western-Yemeni or US-Yemeni), despite the fact

that the Americans (not the British) started the trouble in

Afghanistan (not in Yemen!) leading to the British

government’s PR crisis. Like many Bond movies, the producers



“construct an imaginary world in which Pax Britannia still

operates” (Dodds, 2003:131), where other governments (American

or Yemeni) do not exist.

Critiquing the Conduct of Public Relations

The other major highlight, and the prime target of satire

in the film, is the pointed and hilarious parody of the

conduct of PR by the British government. Its comedic genre

permits a parodying satire that takes irreverent pot-shots at

the government’s relentless spin-doctoring and pursuit of

positive scoop, being always on the look-out for “feel-good”

and “human interest stories” (IMDb, 2012b; Metacritic, 2012).

As the tough-as-nails Mrs Maxwell commands her staff, “we need

a good news story from the Middle East.5 Get on with it”

(Stables, 2012). As Dodds (2008:479) elucidates, governments

“invest… in manufacturing particular visual moments”, coming

up with “photo opportunities” and ensuring the “entire

spectacle… (is) carefully stage managed”. This movie mimics

the government’s obsession with the visual perfectly, also

5 This line best captures the government’s “mis-location” of Afghanistan inthe Middle East.



playing on its cinematography to capture this side-

splittingly.

The film shows us the slapstick conduct of government

affairs behind-the-scenes, where the Foreign and Commonwealth

Office press secretary has regular unfettered access to the

Prime Minister (PM) via instant messaging (IM), where key

decisions are made (Figures 10 & 11). The power Mrs Maxwell

wields behind-the-scenes resonates in the movie.

Figures 10 (left) & 11 (right): The PM and Mrs Maxwell communicating via IM in the

movie closing, plotting yet another publicity stunt and deciding to “redeploy” the

Foreign Secretary. Source: movie screenshot.

The support of the British government for the “lunatic”

project stems from the fact that the sheikh is wealthy and a

“good friend of the West… and the Party6 too”. Mrs Maxwell6 This refers to the ruling government’s political party, though it is uncertain in the movie which party that is. Nevertheless the novel author states that his book satirizes Blair’s Labour government (Tookey, 2012).



became even more excited upon the “revelation that there are

at least two million anglers in the UK” (IMDb, 2012b),

desiring to use this project to “endear the government to

fish-fanciers in Britain and paint the UK as sympathetic to

Islamic culture” (Tookey, 2012), while forgetting that these

fisher-folk would revolt at the government’s attempts to

remove 10,000 salmon from Scottish waters.

Figure 12: Mrs Maxwell asks the PM if he can fish; when Mrs Maxwell tells him there

are 2 million voters who can fish, he claims that he can fish too. Source: movie

screenshot.

Unfortunately (but predictably), her plans backfired: the

project made the news (Figures 13 & 14), but for the wrong

reasons, angering fishermen and environmentalists and creating

headache for the administration. Undeterred, she fabricates a

bigger spectacle: Ms Chetwode-Talbot’s boyfriend happens to be

sole survivor of an Afghan military skirmish, and Mrs Maxwell

orchestrates a “surprise” lover’s reunion (including the



media) at the Yemeni project’s grand launch (Figure 15),

allowing the Foreign Secretary in attendance air-time to

glorify Britain’s involvement in Afghanistan. Contemporary

issues (Dodds, 2003) like concern over British involvement in

the Afghan war shape the storyline despite the tenuous link

between Afghanistan and Yemen. The government’s effort in

manufacturing this spectacle (by helicoptering the soldier in)

(Dodds, 2008) shows the administration’s desperation in

seeking positive news from “the Middle East” (where both

Afghanistan and Yemen are seen to reside side-by-side). Of

course, the media are nonchalant when the Foreign Secretary

begins to speak (Figure 16). Nevertheless Mrs Maxwell

perseveres, continuing to look for new PR angles

notwithstanding the media’s snub of the Foreign Secretary

(Figure 17) and despite the terrorist attack on the Yemeni

project causing a “PR disaster” (Figures 10 & 11).



Figures 13 (left) & 14 (right): Bad press about the contentious decision to remove

10,000 salmon fish from Scottish rivers. Source: movie screenshot.

Figure 15 (left): Introducing Ms Chetwode-Talbot and her soldier-boyfriend to the

press; Figure 16 (right): The press turn away and talk amongst themselves when

Foreign Secretary begins to speak. Source: movie screenshot.



Figure 17: Mrs Maxwell constantly looking for PR angles in everything she does.

Source: movie screenshot.

Conclusion

As Dodds (2008:476) asserts, “films matter”. In my

analysis of Salmon Fishing in the Yemen we witness the producers’

geographical and geopolitical imaginations of the places

represented, their disparagement of the government’s unabashed

conduct of PR, and how the audience (whether anonymous online

reviewers or film correspondents) matters: in their

interpretation of the movie and in their endorsement or

disapproval. The power of the film to communicate these

messages (covert or blatant) requires that one adopts a

critical (geopolitical) eye to watching film so as to unpack

these intentions and ask meaningful questions. A reviewer

writes, “You (don’t) have to actually like fishing, or

understand it, to enjoy Salmon Fishing in the Yemen” (IMDB, 2012b);

similarly I claim that you do not have to be an academic to be

able to fish for geopolitics in film and in daily life.



References

Bayoumi, S. (2012) ‘Salmon Fishing in the Yemen’ and the Orientalist’s Checklist [Online] Available at: <http://sohabayoumi.blogspot.sg/2012/03/salmon-fishing-in-yemen-and.html> [Accessed 14 October 2012].

Close-Up Film. (2012) Interview: Ewan Mcgregor, Emily Blunt, Amr Waked, and Paul Webster – In conversation about Salmon Fishing in the Yemen [Online] Available at: <http://www.close-upfilm.com/2012/04/salmon-fishing-in-the-yemen-in-conversation-with-ewan-mcgregor-emily-blunt-amr-waked-and-paul-webster/> [Accessed 14 October 2012].

Dodds, K. (2003) Licensed to Stereotype: Popular Geopolitics, James Bond and the Spectre of Balkanism, Geopolitics, 8, 2, 125-156.

Dodds, K. (2008) ‘Have you seen any good films lately?’ Geopolitics, International Relations and Film, Geography Compass, 2, 2, 476-494.

Hughes, R. (2007) Through the Looking Blast: Geopolitics and Visual Culture, Geography Compass, 1, 5, 976-994.

IMDb. (2012a) Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2011) [Online] Available at: <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1441952/> [Accessed 13 October 2012].

IMDb. (2012b) Salmon Fishing in the Yemen Reviews & Ratings [Online] Available at: <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1441952/reviews> [Accessed 14October 2012].

Kettell, S. (2011) Britain and the ‘War on Terror’ – Dr Steven Kettell Responds[Online] Available at: <http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/knowledge/themes/terror/britain/waronterror/> [Accessed 14 October 2012].

Metacritic. (2012) Read User Reviews and Submit your own for Salmon Fishing in the Yemen [Online] Available at:



<http://www.metacritic.com/movie/salmon-fishing-in-the-yemen-2012/user-reviews> [Accessed 14 October 2012].

Rees, J. (2012) Salmon Fishing in the Yemen author Paul Torday: 'The Yemenissaid, what’s all this about fish?' [Online] Available at: <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/authorinterviews/8990545/Salmon-Fishing-in-the-Yemen-author-Paul-Torday-The-Yemenis-said-whats-all-this-about-fish.html> [Accessed14 October 2012].

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. (2012) Directed by Lasse Hallstrom. UK:Lionsgate.

Sibley, D. (2009) Self-Other, in Kitchin, R. and Thrift, N. (eds.) International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, Elsevier, pp.85-88.

Stables, K. (2012) Reviews: Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Sight and Sound, 22, 5, 79-80.

The Telegraph. (2012) There’s no salmon fishing in Yemen, tourist board warns [Online] Available at: <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/yemen/9241821/Theres-no-salmon-fishing-in-Yemen-tourist-board-warns.html> [Accessed 14 October 2012].

Tookey, C. (2012) One mustn’t carp at Salmon Fishing in the Yemen [Online] Available at: <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/reviews/article-2132373/One-mustnt-carp-Salmon-Fishing-In-The-Yemen.html> [Accessed 14 October 2012].


Popular Geopolitics / Movie Review: Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

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