The ending of Masameer Junior was mostly about how the three six-year-olds, Trad, Saltooh, and Saad, accomplished the mission they had set out for. Shortly after their school teacher, Mr. Muneer, introduced them to the concept of “jahanum or hell,” the trio decided to atone for their sins by performing good deeds. However, they soon realized that they were only efficient in taking lives rather than saving one. This brought them to the conclusion that they would kill someone to save themselves from going to hell. They came across a woman named Maisa Wahbi, whom they believed was a homewrecker who lured men with her singing and dancing, and these men would often ignore their spouses to see her perform. I mean it wasn’t Maisa’s fault at all. These disloyal men were themselves responsible for wrecking their married lives, but the kids who grew up in a conservative society didn’t know any better. It’s a satirical comedy film, so you already know what the makers are trying to say through these three kids. So in order to terminate the threat polluting their society, the kids arrived in the Republic of Artaqia, where Maisa lived.
Spoiler Alert
Some 30 years ago, the fictional city of Artaqia had descended into a civil war after its president, Riyad Chamoun, was assassinated, and soon after his death, the two violent factions, September’s Flower Group and July’s Thorn Group, started fighting over the reins of the country. Ghandoor, the caliph of September’s Flower Group, wants to restore democracy in the country by eliminating July’s Thorn Group. However, before he could do so, Trad, Saltooh, and Saad ended up visiting his stronghold, where the trio found out that Ghandoor had a history with Maisa, which was why Trad tried to infuriate him into killing Maisa by lying to him that his old flame was in love with his enemy, Zaghloul Al Maatar, the leader of the July’s Thorn Group. But to the trio’s surprise, Ghandoor decided to abort the mission to assassinate Zaghloul, as he didn’t want to hurt the love of his life once again. However, because of Ghandoor’s change of heart, his most trusted major general, Meshaal Mashoor, betrayed him and took over the throne of Artaqia at gunpoint.
Ghandoor was in a bit of shock, and his faction was never meant to rule or point guns at civilians. He just wanted to save the country from a civil war so the people could elect a new leader, but when he saw his dreams eroding away in front of his eyes, he decided to take matters into his own hands and planted numerous C4s in the building where Mashoor and his army had gathered.
Mashoor was about to blow up the building when he found out that Mashoor had invited Maisa to perform at his victory. And the heartbroken lover couldn’t blow up Maisa, right? Well, not until he found out the truth about the woman. So, back in the day, Ghandoor, infatuated by Maisa’s beauty, asked her to take him in as a bodyguard so he could spend the rest of his life protecting her. The days went by, and the two fell in love with each other until Maisa found out that Ghandoor was a supporter of Riyad Chamoun. Maisa was loyal to July’s Thorn, and as soon as Riyad came into power, he asked the militant group to lay down their weapons for the peace and prosperity of the country. I mean, you can draw parallels with what’s happening in most of the Middle Eastern countries, especially with the Taliban, so you know what Riyad is trying to achieve. Well, long story short, the two lovers shared two different political ideologies, which brought a crack in their relationship. Maisa didn’t explicitly tell Ghandoor that she wanted to break up with him. She treated him as an enemy and used his love and loyalty to further her own political objectives. Once during a concert, she hired an assassin, Joseph, to come on stage with a bouquet. Maisa knew that Ghandoor, being her lover and a bodyguard, would react uncontrollably and beat the hell out of the man, but that’s what she wanted. She wanted Ghandoor to send Joseph to a hospital where President Riyad had an appointment. And as soon as Joseph was hospitalized, he exploded himself, taking down the future of Artaqia with him.
In Masameer Junior’s ending, Ghandoor finally realized that Maisa didn’t leave him because he wanted kids from her, and she couldn’t become a mother. But the actual reason was their political rivalry. However, the thing that hurt him the most was that instead of telling him the truth, Maisa used him as a pawn. After this revelation, Ghandoor was no longer divided between serving his country and saving the life of his past lover. Instead, there was no lover at all, just a vicious enemy who conspired to assassinate the only person who could have saved Artaqia. His C4s blew up the building, killing all the hostile elements of the society. Meanwhile, Maisa tried to escape, but she was hit with a car, taking away the trio’s only chance to atone for their sins. Trad begged her to wake up so “it” could kill her again, but she was long gone. Fortunately, the people on the street started cheering for Ghandoor and the trio of kids, believing they liberated the country, which the trio saw as a “huge good deed” and therefore decided to return to their lands.
Unfortunately, when Trad, Saltooh, and Saad narrated their heroic deeds to their teacher, Mr. Muneer, he wasn’t quite impressed. He, like most of the men in their country, saw Maisa as a pure woman with an angelic voice, and by killing her, they had committed one of the most heinous sins of their lives, for which they would indeed go to hell. He further told them about Um Bunana, a terrorist who recruits women to extremist groups, and said that God would bless the one who kills her and rids the world of her abomination. Trad is already planning to locate this woman so the trio could accomplish their “good deed” so they didn’t have to go to hell. It’s quite obvious here how the school and the teacher shape the kid’s character and their beliefs with fear, introducing them to the concept of hell and heaven without properly explaining to them the difference between right and wrong. What Mr. Muneer was doing to the trio was no different from how the military camp brainwashed the young lads with the promise of heaven if they committed themselves to the cause. These teenagers or kids are not mature enough to ask the right questions. They are merely being used as a puppet and spend most of their lives thinking they did the right thing and deserved heaven, but the reality is far different. Masameer Junior is an animated satire that reflects reality, hence hinting at the fact that just like the young militants, the Trad, Saltooh, and Saad will never realize the truth and will keep taking lives because that’s what they are good at, right?
