By Miri -
Like Palestinian artistic
and cultural forms of expression in general, Palestinian cinema is
“structurally exilic”, meaning its actors are spread across
different places, with limited means of communication and
collaboration. As such the cinematic approaches of Palestinian film
makers, just like their backgrounds, differ considerably, yet writer
Nana Asfour asserts that “[w]hat binds Palestinian films together
are the language - Palestinian Arabic - the subject - Palestinian
lives - and the desire of each director to portray his [sic] own
take on what being Palestinian means".
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| The Alhamra Cinema in Jaffa, 1937 |
Another commonality according to Asfour is that Palestinian
cinema in all its forms can be described as an act of resistance against the effort of being made invisible and in defiance of Israel's
attempts to systematically prevent the emergence of Palestinian
culture. Considering the conditions under which Palestinians
especially in the West Bank and Gaza, and to a lesser extent in
Israel live, the very existence of a stateless cinema is in fact
remarkable. Until recently there was hardly any national funding, relatively few skilled crews and film makers frequently
had to work around curfews and roadblocks, and were not always able
to access their locations. And yet, against all odds, Palestinian cinema has been steadily developing and increasingly receives international attention.
According to Nurith Gertz
and George Khleifi, the history of Palestinian cinema to date can be
divided into four different periods.
The founding moment of
Palestinian cinema is usually set in the year 1935, with Ibrahim Hassan
Sirhan's short documentary about King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia's
visit to Palestine. Sirhan produced two more documentaries and in
1945 established the film company “Palestine Studio”, which
however produced only one feature film “Holiday Eve”, which was
unfortunately lost in 1948, when Sirhan had to flee his home in
Jaffa.
The second period, from
1948 to 1967 is labelled by the authors “the epoch of silence”.
The only nascent Palestinian film industry had just been destroyed
and its potential agents were spread across the globe, merely coming
to terms with their new existence as “subordinates and marginalized
subjects in alien countries”. While new documentaries on the
Palestinian dilemma started to emerge especially in Egypt, the
centre of the Arabic speaking film industry, only few exiled
Palestinians, such as Muhammad Saleh al-Kayyal, who lived in Egypt,
had the opportunity to partake in those endeavours and were able to
make their own voices heard.
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| "Palestinian Cinema - An Essential Front in Our Struggle" |
Lasting between 1968 and
1982, the third period is described as “the revolutionary period”, which
saw the emergence of a number of mainly documentary films, produced
by Palestinian political movements in exile. Realising the potential
of the medium to advance the Palestinian cause and to influence
public opinion in the West, the Palestinian Liberation Organisation
founded Aflam Filasteen (Palestinian Films) in Jordan in 1968. A
small crew, including Sulafa Jadallah, the first camerawoman in the
Arab world, borrowed film equipment and set out to document military
actions, revolutionary events, the Palestinian resistance, and
everyday life in the refugee camps. Those revolutionary film makers
adopted the style of newsreels, blending scenes of destruction with
victory speeches and song, "transforming every Palestinian
defeat into victory - and thereby providing a sort of 'correction' of
the past".
In 1973, the short-lived
non-partisan Palestinian Cinema Group was founded, whose stated goal
was “to develop a Palestinian cinema capable of supporting with
dignity the struggle of our people, revealing the actual facts of our
situation and describing the stages of our Arab and Palestinian
struggle to liberate our land". At the same time the group's
manifesto also propagated “the emergence of a new aesthetic”,
which at the time however was not realised.
The revolutionary period
produced more than sixty documentaries, many of which were however
lost after the 1982 Israeli invasion of Beirut, the location of the
PLO's film archive .
Finally, the fourth period
begins in 1982 and lasts until the present day. While the films of
the previous period aimed at depicting the Palestinians as one
unified nation, suffering from a unifying trauma, the new era of
Palestinian cinema finally saw the emergence of personal and
individual stories. Michel Khleifi (Fertile Memory 1980, Wedding in
Galilee 1987, Canticle of the Stones 1989) is usually credited with
launching the new Palestinian cinema by directing Wedding in Galilee,
the first feature film by a Palestinian. While depicting the
intervention of Israeli rule on daily Palestinian life, the film also
illustrated Palestinian society's own oppressiveness, criticising
particularly its patriarchal structures.
In 1993 Rashid Masharawi
(Curfew 1993, Haifa 1995, Ticket to Jerusalem 2002, Laila's Birthday
2009) released his debut Curfew, set within a family home during a
seemingly endless curfew in Gaza, and highlighted the despairing and
constrictive reality of Palestinian refugees. Finally in 1996, Elia
Suleiman made himself internationally known with his Chronicle of a
Disappearance, and soon became the most celebrated Palestinian film
maker. In 2002 the submission of his Divine Intervention was rejected
by the Academy on the grounds that Palestine did not constitute a
nation. Hany Abu-Assad's (Rana's Wedding 2003, Paradise Now 2005, Omar 2013) Paradise Now, a
co-production between Palestinians and Israelis, managed to enter the
competition, running under the label “Palestinian Authority”.
Scandar Copti's Ajami constituted the first predominantly
Arabic-language film submitted by Israel for the Academy Award.
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| Still from Abu-Assad's Paradise Now |
This points to a general
difficulty of Palestinian film makers, many of who are citizens of
Israel, and who by receiving funding from Israeli institutions, or by
working with Israeli film teams, continue to be criticised for
collaborating with the occupier, and whitewashing the Israeli
state. Most recently Palestinian actor Saleh Bakri, the son of
one of Palestinian cinema's most prominent actors, Muhammad Bakri, said in an
interview that he opposed the way his appearance in Israeli films has
been manipulated to “make Israel look good” and to appear as a
diverse and democratic state.
The Israeli criticism on
the other hand focusses mainly on a perceived lack of "fleshed
out Israeli characters" in Palestinian films, which seems
hypocritical at best, considering the very one-dimensional portrayals of Palestinians in
the majority of Israeli film productions. As such, "by driving
[the Israelis] out of the cinematic frame", Palestinian film
makers can also be seen as expressing "resistance to the
hegemonic might of the rulers".
Criticism has also been
launched from the Palestinian audience, who felt offended by some of
the film makers' denunciation of elements in the Palestinian society.
However, much more difficult than bearing their criticism, is the
fact that most Palestinian film makers cannot reach the people they
are talking about. Due to a complete lack of movie theatres in Gaza,
and only a few in the West Bank, any European will have greater
access to Palestinian films than the vast majority of Palestinians.
Notwithstanding all those
difficulties and the fact that “the war of images”, just like the
war of the occupation seem to continue to be in Israel's favour, Nana Asfour is
hopeful: "the number of Palestinians who believe in the
redemptive power of the image - and of narration - is ever-growing", and will in the future also include more and more female film makers. While there are already a number of documentaries and short films made by Palestinian women,
Annemarie Jacir's Salt of
this Sea (2008), constituted the first feature film made by a Palestinian woman. Already her second feature When I Saw You was selected as the Palestinian entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar in 2012.
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