Film showing the Palestinian pain after Israel’s 1948 War: Director

Director Darin J. Sallam said to AFP that “Farha”, a Jordanian movie, was based on true events. It has been criticized in Israel.

“Farha,” a Netflix film, was released last month. It depicts the atrocities perpetrated against Palestinians during 1948’s conflict, which Palestinians refer to as the Nakba (or “catastrophe”)

This film, which is in Arabic, tells the story Farha, a Palestinian teenager, who sees her village under siege by Israeli forces.

Her father hides and then she sees the execution of a family consisting of two Palestinian civilians.

Sallam (35), said that her first feature length film was inspired by a story her mother told her about Radiyeh, a Palestinian woman.

Sallam stated that the film tells the story of a girl who was forced to give up her dreams due to events beyond her control.

“Farha”, which was featured at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2021, won 12 awards in other festivals.

Officials in Israel condemned Netflix for streaming the film because of the taboo surrounding the 1948 war atrocities.

Sallam spoke of the Palestinian territories and Israel, saying that he wanted to “open the eyes of the world to this pivotal moment… and to show the people in this land were not without people.”

“It was a land full of people with dreams, hopes, and histories.”

– ‘I am Farha’ –

Filming was done in Al-Fuhais (northern Jordan) and Ajlun (northern Jordan). These towns are very similar to the Palestinian village where Farha began her story.

The teenage girl tries her best to persuade her dad to let her finish her studies in city.

Sallam stated that she did not show violence except for the killing of unarmed relatives.

She stated that this scene, although it shaken the Israeli government, was only one of many sufferings suffered by millions Palestinians during the Nakba.

Sallam urged more filmmakers to examine this difficult chapter of Palestinian history. It “almost never appears on film”.

Radiyeh’s mother, a Syrian refugee, had heard Radiyeh tell her story in a camp there and passed it along to her. “And I decided to make a movie and share it.”

Sallam stated that Radiyeh was held captive by her father, who feared for her. She fled to Syria when she was finally free from hiding.” “That’s where she shared the story with my mother.”

The filmmaker claimed that she had lost all contact with her, a Palestinian refugee from Yarmouk in northern Damascus who had been living in the war-ravaged camp since 2011.

Sallam was contacted by an audience member after a screening in the United States.

“A woman in her eighties who survived the Nakba said to me, ‘I am Farha.'”

– ‘Lies’ –

Avigdor, a former Israeli minister, stated that Avigdor Lieberman had been in government until Benjamin Netanyahu was elected last month.

Chili Tropper, Israel’s former culture minister said that Farha shows “lies” and “libels”.

Sallam, whose father was Palestinian, said that “denying the Nakba means denying my existence, denying millions of people’s tragedy.”

“My father survived the Nakba. He… fled to Jordan along with his parents.”

Sallam was born in Ramle, now central Israel.

Most Arab residents fled or were expelled from their homes in 1948, along with more than 760,000 Palestinians.

Many of their descendants are still living in Jordan, Syria, or Lebanon today.

Jordan’s population of approximately 10,000,000 people is more than half Palestinian. It was formed from mass displacement in 1948, and the 1967 Six-Day War that saw Israel take over the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

Alon Schwarz, an Israeli director, was criticized last year for his documentary about the 1948 massacre of Palestinians at Tantura, a Mediterranean settlement in the northwest of Israel.

There have been numerous calls in recent years from Israeli activists for greater transparency on the conduct of the emerging Israeli forces during the 1948 war.

kt/at/ami/fz/pjm