It is easy to judge. It is difficult to get people to look beyond their judgments. The documentary ‘Koran by Heart’ succeeds in doing so, at least for the 77-minute duration of the film.

The film brilliantly portrays the stories of three 10-year old Muslim children who travel to Cairo, Egypt to participate in the annual Qur’an recitation competition.

Rifdah, an intelligent, shy girl from the Maldives, Nabiollah a quiet, cheerful boy from Tajikistan who has a beautiful, serene voice and Djamil, a lively boy from Senegal; all three have memorized the 600 pages of the holy Muslim book without knowing its language, Arabic.

The film was premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York in April. The theatre was full.

When you first see Rifdha in her black veil, you wonder why a 10-year-old girl has to wear that in a warm place like the Maldives islands. You might think of women’s oppression, of free choice, of inequality and of the correlation between all this and Islam.

The magic of the film is that soon enough you forget about this. You connect with Rifdha and you join her on her journey to Cairo. You experience her nervousness as she her turn approaches and you smile at her joys when she finds out she has won second place.

The film was about more than the competition. Without directly addressing the issue, the film alludes to extremism. Nabiollah, the boy from Tajikistan, had to travel to attend school far from his home after the only school in his city was closed down by the government for fears of extremism.

Dr Salem, the man in charge of the competition, speaks against extremism in the name of Islam. He encourages the participation of Rifdha in the competition as one of the few female participants. Dr Salem notes that in Islam there is equality between men and women.

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