Film on Israel’s 1948 warfare ‘Farha’ exhibits Palestinian agony: Director Darin J. Sallam
6 min readBy AFP
AMMAN: Jordanian movie “Farha”, vehemently criticised in Israel, relies on true occasions and represents “only a drop in the ocean” of Palestinian struggling, director Darin J. Sallam advised AFP.
Released final month on Netflix, “Farha” depicts atrocities in opposition to Palestinians in the course of the 1948 battle following Israel’s creation, which Palestinians name the Nakba, or “catastrophe”.
The Arabic-language movie tells the story of a Palestinian teenager, Farha, whose village comes beneath assault by Israeli forces.
Her father hides her and, by a crack in a door, she witnesses the execution a household of Palestinian civilians, together with two ladies.
Sallam, 35, mentioned the plot for her first full-length characteristic was impressed by a narrative advised to her by her mom, a few Palestinian lady named Radiyeh.
The movie recounts “the story of a girl who had been forced to abandon her dreams because of events she had no control over”, Sallam mentioned.
“Farha” featured within the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival and has received a dozen awards in different festivals.
In Israel, the place dialogue of alleged atrocities in the course of the 1948 warfare stays largely taboo, officers condemned Netflix over the choice to stream the movie.
“I wanted to open the world’s eyes to this pivotal moment in the history… and to show that this land was not without people,” Sallam mentioned, of what’s now Israel and the Palestinian territories.
“Rather, it was a land with people who had lives, dreams, hopes and history.”
‘I’m Farha’
The movie was shot within the northern Jordan cities of Ajlun and Al-Fuhais, which resemble the Palestinian village the place Farha’s story begins.
The teenage woman tries to influence her father to let her full her research within the metropolis, prepares for a good friend’s wedding ceremony, and picks figs earlier than her village is attacked.
Sallam mentioned she prevented displaying violence, excluding the unarmed household’s killing.
“This scene, which shook the Israeli government, is only a drop in the ocean of the suffering of millions of Palestinians during the Nakba,” she mentioned.
Sallam referred to as for extra filmmakers to discover this painful chapter in Palestinian historical past, which “almost never appears in cinema”.
Her mom, of Syrian origin, had heard Radiyeh’s story at a refugee camp in that nation and handed it on to her, “and I decided to make a film and share it”.
“Radiyeh had been locked up by her father who feared for her, and when she was finally able to come out of hiding she went to Syria,” Sallam mentioned. “That’s where she told the story to my mother.”
The filmmaker mentioned she had “lost all contact with this woman”, a resident of the war-ravaged Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk, north of Damascus, since combating in Syria started in 2011.
After one screening of the movie within the United States, an viewers member spoke to Sallam.
“A woman aged in her eighties who had survived the Nakba told me: ‘I am Farha'”, she mentioned.
‘Lies’
Former Israeli minister Avigdor Lieberman, who had served in authorities till Benjamin Netanyahu returned to energy final month, mentioned in November the movie’s “whole purpose is to create a false pretence and incite against Israeli soldiers”.
Chili Tropper, Israel’s former tradition minister, mentioned “Farha” exhibits “lies and libels”.
For Sallam, whose father is Palestinian, “denying the Nakba is denying my existence, denying the tragedy of millions of people.”
“My own father survived the Nakba. He… fled to Jordan with his parents.”
Sallam’s father was born in Ramle, in what’s now central Israel.
Most of its Arab residents fled or had been compelled from their houses in the course of the 1948 battle, as had been greater than 760,000 Palestinians throughout the nation.
Many of their descendants stay to today in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
More than half of Jordan’s inhabitants of about 10 million individuals are of Palestinian origin, the results of mass displacement in 1948 and in the course of the 1967 Six-Day War, when Israel occupied the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
Last yr, Israeli director Alon Schwarz confronted backlash over his documentary on an alleged 1948 bloodbath of Palestinians in Tantura, a Mediterranean village within the northwest of what’s now Israel.
Calls have mounted in recent times, together with amongst Israeli activists, for larger transparency in regards to the conduct of nascent Israeli forces in the course of the 1948 battle.
AMMAN: Jordanian movie “Farha”, vehemently criticised in Israel, relies on true occasions and represents “only a drop in the ocean” of Palestinian struggling, director Darin J. Sallam advised AFP.
Released final month on Netflix, “Farha” depicts atrocities in opposition to Palestinians in the course of the 1948 battle following Israel’s creation, which Palestinians name the Nakba, or “catastrophe”.
The Arabic-language movie tells the story of a Palestinian teenager, Farha, whose village comes beneath assault by Israeli forces.
Her father hides her and, by a crack in a door, she witnesses the execution a household of Palestinian civilians, together with two ladies.
Sallam, 35, mentioned the plot for her first full-length characteristic was impressed by a narrative advised to her by her mom, a few Palestinian lady named Radiyeh.
The movie recounts “the story of a girl who had been forced to abandon her dreams because of events she had no control over”, Sallam mentioned.
“Farha” featured within the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival and has received a dozen awards in different festivals.
In Israel, the place dialogue of alleged atrocities in the course of the 1948 warfare stays largely taboo, officers condemned Netflix over the choice to stream the movie.
“I wanted to open the world’s eyes to this pivotal moment in the history… and to show that this land was not without people,” Sallam mentioned, of what’s now Israel and the Palestinian territories.
“Rather, it was a land with people who had lives, dreams, hopes and history.”
‘I’m Farha’
The movie was shot within the northern Jordan cities of Ajlun and Al-Fuhais, which resemble the Palestinian village the place Farha’s story begins.
The teenage woman tries to influence her father to let her full her research within the metropolis, prepares for a good friend’s wedding ceremony, and picks figs earlier than her village is attacked.
Sallam mentioned she prevented displaying violence, excluding the unarmed household’s killing.
“This scene, which shook the Israeli government, is only a drop in the ocean of the suffering of millions of Palestinians during the Nakba,” she mentioned.
Sallam referred to as for extra filmmakers to discover this painful chapter in Palestinian historical past, which “almost never appears in cinema”.
Her mom, of Syrian origin, had heard Radiyeh’s story at a refugee camp in that nation and handed it on to her, “and I decided to make a film and share it”.
“Radiyeh had been locked up by her father who feared for her, and when she was finally able to come out of hiding she went to Syria,” Sallam mentioned. “That’s where she told the story to my mother.”
The filmmaker mentioned she had “lost all contact with this woman”, a resident of the war-ravaged Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk, north of Damascus, since combating in Syria started in 2011.
After one screening of the movie within the United States, an viewers member spoke to Sallam.
“A woman aged in her eighties who had survived the Nakba told me: ‘I am Farha'”, she mentioned.
‘Lies’
Former Israeli minister Avigdor Lieberman, who had served in authorities till Benjamin Netanyahu returned to energy final month, mentioned in November the movie’s “whole purpose is to create a false pretence and incite against Israeli soldiers”.
Chili Tropper, Israel’s former tradition minister, mentioned “Farha” exhibits “lies and libels”.
For Sallam, whose father is Palestinian, “denying the Nakba is denying my existence, denying the tragedy of millions of people.”
“My own father survived the Nakba. He… fled to Jordan with his parents.”
Sallam’s father was born in Ramle, in what’s now central Israel.
Most of its Arab residents fled or had been compelled from their houses in the course of the 1948 battle, as had been greater than 760,000 Palestinians throughout the nation.
Many of their descendants stay to today in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
More than half of Jordan’s inhabitants of about 10 million individuals are of Palestinian origin, the results of mass displacement in 1948 and in the course of the 1967 Six-Day War, when Israel occupied the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
Last yr, Israeli director Alon Schwarz confronted backlash over his documentary on an alleged 1948 bloodbath of Palestinians in Tantura, a Mediterranean village within the northwest of what’s now Israel.
Calls have mounted in recent times, together with amongst Israeli activists, for larger transparency in regards to the conduct of nascent Israeli forces in the course of the 1948 battle.
