Oscar short-listed movie offers glimpse of Palestinians' life under Israeli checkpoints

Record ID: 1602956

  • Title: Oscar short-listed movie offers glimpse of Palestinians' life under Israeli checkpoints
  • Date: 25th February 2021
  • Summary: BETHLEHEM, WEST BANK (FEBRUARY 24, 2021) (REUTERS) (MUTE) DRONE FOOTAGE SHOWING ISRAELI WEST BANK BARRIER SEPARATING BETWEEN BETHLEHEM AND JERUSALEM
  • Embargoed: 11th March 2021 11:04
  • Keywords: Farah Nabulsi Israel Oscars Palestine Palestinians checkpoints
  • Location: BETHLEHEM, QALANDIA, BETHLEHEM AND UNKNOWN LOCATION, WEST BANK / DUBAI, UAE
  • City: BETHLEHEM, QALANDIA, BETHLEHEM AND UNKNOWN LOCATION, WEST BANK / DUBAI, UAE
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Topics: Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Film,Middle East
  • Reuters ID: LVA00CE15653P
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Shortly after the Palestinian Intifada in the 1990s, British-Palestinian filmmaker Farah Nabulsi ceased her visits the West Bank where her family hailed from. Twenty-five years later, she returned to find a new reality that inspired her film 'The Present' which has been shortlisted for an Oscar nomination recently.
    Highlighting the struggles of Palestinian families in the West Bank, the short drama's shortlisting ranks it among the top ten films in its category.
    The title of Nabulsi's film is a translation of the word "El Hedeya", which in Arabic has a double meaning of "gift" and "present time". The double-edged meaning is what Nabulsi intended to convey in both the title and the film itself, she said.
    "I thought I'd understood the situation there," she said. "But there was no substitute for seeing what was happening on the ground in reality with my own two eyes."
    Nabulsi here referred to the numerous checkpoints established by the Israeli military, as well as the West Bank barrier Israel began building in 2002 at the peak of a Palestinian uprising, what she calls a "wall ploughing the land and people's homes and separating families."
    Nabulsi depicts these struggles in her film through the eyes of Yusef, a Palestinian father who, accompanied by his young daughter, navigates such checkpoints in order to buy his wife an anniversary gift.
    Israel says the barrier and its accompanying checkpoints aim to stop attacks by militants in its cities, but Palestinians refer to it as a "land grab" that cut through its communities.
    The film is based on real events but Nabulsi says, reality sometimes is far worse.
    "A young man I've gotten to know over the years, and he lives in Hebron…he lives on a road quite literally, where 80 meters from his house, (there) is a checkpoint," said Nabulsi.
    The film marks Nabulsi's directorial debut, but she also produced the film, wrote the story, and co-wrote the script.
    Official nominations for the 93rd Academy Awards are expected on March 15.
    The West Bank has seen simmering violence since U.S.-sponsored peace talks with Israel broke down in 2014.
    Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war. Palestinians seek to establish a state there and in the Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
    (Production: Mohammad Abu Ganeyeh, Yosri Al-Jamal, Tarek Fahmy)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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