Q&A with Palestinian Director Farah Nabulsi

Online Q&A given in November 2021, following a screening of The Present. The Present can be viewed worldwide on Netflix and other streaming services.

Farah Nabulsi is an Oscar nominated and BAFTA Award-Winning Palestinian British filmmaker, based in the UK. 

The Present is her first film, which she also co wrote. 

It premiered at Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival 2020 and won the Audience Award for Best Film. It had its North American premiere at the Cleveland International Film Festival, where it won the Jury Award for Best Live Action Short, qualifying it for the 2021 Oscars.

It was nominated for The Academy Awards (OSCARS®) and won a BAFTA Award for Best British Short Film 2021.

Diana Safieh:

We are joined by Farah Nabulsi, she’ll be joining us in a minute. And let me just introduce her to you. She’s been Oscar nominated and she’s BAFTA award winning British filmmaker. She’s based in the UK, raised here. And The Present, which you have just seen, is her first film. And it premiered at the Clermond-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in 2020 and won the Audience award for best film. It had its North American premiere at the Cleveland International Film Festival, which is where it won the jury award for best live action short, qualifying it for the 2021 Oscars. And it was nominated for the Academy Awards, the Oscars and won a BAFTA award for the Best British Short Film in 2021. And she’s currently working on her next project. So I would like to ask her to come back and join us. Farah, hello.

Farah Nabulsi:

Hi.

Diana:

Hi. Thank you so much for taking time to come and speak to our audiences. I wanted to start off with a question about the actors and the filming of the film. I saw the end, it says made in Palestine. So it was filmed there?

Farah:

Yes. The film was filmed in what we call the Bethlehem area, so the Bethlehem government entirely. Yeah, made in Palestine.

Diana:

Lovely. And are the actors mainly Palestinian as well?

Farah:

Yeah. Everybody you saw on screen were Palestinians, Palestinians from the West Bank, 48-Palestinians, Jerusalemite Palestinians, but everybody Palestinians just from different parts and holding different IDs and having to deal with different headaches and discrimination and all of that. But everyone was Palestinian.

Diana:

I have to admit, I actually bought a fridge this week. And so I’ve seen your film before, but this week it feels even more poignant because I bought a fridge, went online, ordered it, it’s going to be delivered tomorrow within a one hour time slot. So it was a real poignant reminder that it’s not like that for everyone in the world and such a simple, what should be easy mundane everyday task becomes just a dehumanising all day event. I was just wondering whether you had any problems filming in Palestine. Any problems with the IDF or any obstacles in that sense?

Farah:

Making a film anyway has all sorts of headaches and then of course you’re making it in what is militarily occupied territory. I can say in general that there’s nothing that was so problematic that threw a real span in the film we were shooting, of course it’s a short film. I will say, for example, on the last day of shoot, we had just finished the last scene, not the last scene of film, but the last scene that we shot. And so the whole film was done, it was a wrap and irony of all ironies, a flying checkpoint then appeared. It was almost like a moment of, yes okay. That’s why we’re making this film. That’s another, perfect example of why we’re doing this.

Now, when you choose to make a film in the West Bank, you’ve got to be selective about where you’re going to shoot. As many people might know on this call, the area is cut up into Areas A, B and C by the Israeli military. And yes, I did like certain locations in areas B and C. The film was reflective of what would be deemed an Area B for example, and it appears quieter. In the film appears like we’re in a quiet area, but we weren’t. Because every time I found a good location in Area, B or C, I knew that that would be a headache and that’s closer to more checkpoints settlements, more of the military. You push yourself into areas A just to avoid the headaches.

Where you’re getting your permissions and things are from the Palestinian municipalities and asking the Palestinian police to stop traffic, for example. What we did do that was potentially risky in the sense, but it passed well, was we shot scene two of the film, where you see thousands of Palestinians going to work. That is much more documentary. That is a real checkpoint in Bethlehem, Checkpoint 300 is the name of this infamous checkpoint.

And that one, I felt really strongly about shooting the actual checkpoint itself. So the only fiction, if you like in that scene, scene two of the film is our actor Saleh Bakri. everybody else are Palestinians genuinely going to work. And of course, that was more guerilla style. We had two cameras, no lighting, very small unit of us went in from 3:00 in the morning, all the way till 7:00 in the morning. And we got bolder and bolder as the time went on.

I would be hiding behind a wall, come out, direct and go back because I was the only female actually and blonde female as we well and just wanted to avoid sticking out, if you like. And we just knew how far we could go till we would come in the line of the military, if you like. We stuck to the back areas and it passed smoothly. We actually did that scene during a prep day, not in the shoot day, just in case something was confiscated or we ran into trouble. But it was smooth and I’m really grateful for it actually. It was good.

Diana:

There’s a couple of people asking why you picked a fridge? Was there a reason for this? Is this symbolic?

Farah:

Yeah. Very much so. The story is actually rooted and based on a real conversation, I was having with a friend of mine who lives in the Hebron area. For those who’ve been there, they know that’s where, not only are there checkpoints, like all over the West Bank, but specifically they’re very quite close to the heart of the city. So this friend of mine, he lives next to a checkpoint that’s about a hundred meters from his home. And it’s very similar to the one in the main story, there’s a turnstile and a metal detector. And the story is very much, where the seed of this story came to me, was me discussing with him as we stood on one side of his checkpoint and I said to him, “You go through this every single day.”

And he’s like, “Every single day? I have to go through this checkpoint pretty much wherever I want to go, whoever I want to see, whatever I want to buy.” And I said to him, “Okay, hold on, if you needed a new couch, what do you do?” And he said to me, “If it doesn’t fit, it doesn’t go.” And I remember just thinking that is the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard in my life. Technically, you can ask permission but the checkpoints aren’t here to make our life easier. They’re not here to accommodate.

So that’s why my mind got going. And then I thought, okay, there’s a story here. And it could be a couch, but actually I want it to be a fridge. Because to me, a fridge is very symbolic of sustenance. It’s what we all use to keep our food fresh and ultimately put food on the table. And it represents food, and being able to put food on the table for your children and feed your family. So if a parent, a mother, a father, aren’t able to put food on the table or to sustain themselves, let’s just say them themselves and their children then, what the hell? So to me it was a symbolic choice, if you like. It could have been anything that was large, really that you’d need to fit in your house. But I thought a fridge makes sense.

Diana:

And such a basic item that we’re all just used to having.

Farah:

Right.

Diana:

I’m never going to take my fridge for granted ever again.

Farah:

It was funny because the conversation got even more weird where I said, “All right, you need to do some DIY at your house, you need a new hammer.” He was like, “It’ll just get me shot.” The conversation got just so convoluted.

Diana:

We’ve had a couple of people say that the little girl is absolutely amazing. Where did you find her? Was she already an actress?

Farah:

Yeah. I know. Yasmin is acted by a young girl called Mariam Kanj. And the crazy part of that story is that I was visiting a friend of mine, not in Palestine, abroad. And I just said to her, “Oh, I’ve cast Saleh Bakri for my short film and I really need to find now an eight year old girl who ideally lives in Palestine, speaks Arabic, can act and I’d really like her to look like the father in the film.” And it’s funny, I brought it up with her because this particular friend of mine, I don’t really talk much about my work, or at that point in time I wasn’t talking to many people about the film in general. And it’s funny that I brought the film up because then she goes, “Okay, what about my niece?”

And I said, “You have a niece? I didn’t even know you had niece.” And she goes, “Yeah. And she’s in Palestine.” And she shows me a picture and my jaw dropped. I was just completely like, “Wow, she looks like Saleh Bakri.” And I don’t mean just the color of her eyes, no I mean the shape of her face and her jaw, she looks like him. And on top of that, then I said, “Does she act?” She said, “I don’t know, but her father is a film production manager.” And then I was like, “Wait a second, what’s his name?” And I look at my phone, I scroll. “I’m like, oh, we just hired him.” It was crazy. And then she said, “She’s used to being on set. She doesn’t act but she is used to being on set and being in front of adults and she’s confident.”

Anyway, I go to meet her, I go to Palestine, I’m doing some of the auditioning and things like that. And I fell absolutely in love with her. And she’s just a really, really emotionally intelligent child at the time, she’s a bit older now and very expressive. And I knew she was the right one. She hadn’t acted before, she’d been an extra that you wouldn’t have even seen on screen necessarily in one or two productions, never acted, but she was a natural, she was an absolute natural. Obviously it was tough at times, and they say, rule number one, when you make a film, no matter how experienced you are, avoid children. So she was honestly a godsend.

Diana:

I think we all fell in love with her a little bit as well. And I’m sure that was the point. We’ve got a comment from Jill Tan, “The girl symbolises hope for the country.” Which is adorable. I’ve got a comment from Roger Spooner, who is actually the founder of the Balfour Project. He says, “Very moving, is there any way we can show this film or part of it to people who’ve not seen what we’ve seen?” And then a couple of other people asking where the film is available at the moment. Is it still on Netflix?

Farah:

The film is on Netflix worldwide, so anyone in the UK can watch that for sure. And anywhere in the world, to be honest, except for France and Japan. The reason being that it’s also available on Canal+ in France. It’s on Amazon Prime as, well I believe in the UK. I know that it’s Netflix in the US and Amazon Prime in the US and I think the UK as well, I have to check that one. And in various countries. So it is being distributed worldwide in different ways, but Netflix is really the best option because that’s pretty much everywhere. And film festivals, it’s still, screening at film festivals across the world as well. And in events like this, for example.

Diana:

And Netflix in the last couple of weeks have released a whole bunch of Palestinian films as well, haven’t they? Paradise Now, and I think Salt of this Sea, as well, which also has Saleh Bakri and a bunch of other Palestinian films. So if you want to have a Palestinian film marathon, now’s the time. I wanted to ask what it’s like making a film that’s challenging rather than enjoyable? Because it’s a hard watch, your film.

Farah:

Yeah. It was really tough to make but it was also incredibly rewarding and I did enjoy making it. When you make a film in general, I’d say you go through the whole plethora of emotions and especially so with a film that was so important to me in terms of identity, in terms of how passionate I felt about making it. And it was a film from the heart. And yet, on top of that yes, in military occupied territory and, and, and. And also always wondering, are you doing justice to something that is real?

It’s a fiction but it is based on a reality that hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Palestinians live every day. So obviously not every Palestinian goes through necessarily a checkpoint every single day, those who are living in the city centers sometimes might deal with a checkpoint once a week, once every other day.

But there are people like, for example, my friend who has to deal with a checkpoint five, six, seven times a day. So are you doing justice? And that’s a pressure you’re putting on yourself. But honestly though, I wanted to make that film with every bone in my body. So it was a pleasure if you like, in this sense then. And to me, if you are making a film that means something to you, as hard as it is, it is a process that you really are happy and feel so privileged to be able to be doing, as a well. It was a whole roller coaster of emotions but I loved it.

Diana:

Well, we’re all glad that you did that. So thank you very much. There are lots of questions from people asking about how the film was received in Israel and also in Palestine and around the world.

Farah:

I’ll start with around the world because to me it’s interesting many people think, for example, that we distributed with Netflix once we were shortlisted or nominated for the BAFTAs and the Oscars or after we won a BAFTA. And that’s not the case. We were signed with Netflix actually a number of months before that happened, they just released it when that had taken place. So it’s just interesting to tell you that the film was already being received on this worldwide platform earlier.

And in that sense, all the awards the film received in the whole year running up to the Oscars and BAFTAs were jury awards and audience awards all over the world. So from Japan to Australia, where we for the Oscars a second time actually, so it’s twice, to Germany to the Arab world, everywhere. And what that tells me is that both cinematically from juries and so forth and artistically, as well as from audiences, the film was received super well, regardless of ethnicity and background, super well in America. Amazing reception.

In terms of Palestine and Palestinians, inside and outside but let’s say inside now, a wonderful reception. I have had the occasional message or comment or question of a sense of, but hold on, these checkpoints are far, far worse than what you’ve shown. But I was never under the illusion of that, I’m fully aware. Not only have I been at these checkpoints myself numerous times, but I’m fully aware that far worse things take place at these checkpoints, whether it be women giving birth at these checkpoints, or even losing their babies or their own lives, or people bleeding out because they can’t even get to a hospital or being held up in the burning sun for hours and then dehydrating. A lot happens.

But for me, it was the idea of telling the most simple story of, well, hold on before we even get to those levels, isn’t it absolutely ridiculous and absurd that even this is almost the impossible? So this very basic idea of freedom of movement before we get into all the other violations human rights.

Diana:

Already unacceptable, isn’t it?

Farah:

Already unacceptable. Exactly. It’s a short film again, there’s only so much. So there was a of, “Yeah, this is a really good film, but this, this, and this happens.” And I’m like, “I know. And that’s appalling, but this is the film I made.” Which maybe is what made it more absorbable, because people who don’t know about those even worse atrocities, I don’t know how they might have received that, but definitely relating to the idea of going out, buying a gift, coming back and it’s a fridge was extremely relatable in the sense of processing it.

And when it comes to Israel, to be really honest, obviously, it’s available on Netflix there, so I’m sure some people have watched it. I never made the film with an Israeli audience in mind, to be honest.

I of course would love for Israelis to watch it. I would also love and hope that it might resonate with them or some of them. But I wasn’t trying to make a film for that audience, because ultimately that audience is very different in terms of understanding, perception, and cognitive dissonance and in many ways, blindness and willful blindness than other audiences. And so I would say if you know people there or you would somehow want to share it… It was covered in some of the media there. I’m sure it’s being watched, I just haven’t gone looking for the feedback.

I’ve had lovely feedback from the Israeli NGOs there and a few individuals from there who have sent me lovely, lovely emails and messages on social media. So there’s definitely people on the left, if you like who it resonated with but-

Diana:

We have some Jewish UK based charities watching now as well. I’m sure that they will have feedback as well. But I see what you mean, Israeli audience have access to see it firsthand if they want to. And it’s really important to get it to a wider audience with such a relatable topic. And you were covering on how there are lots of different experiences at the checkpoints and this is just everyday trying to do a simple task and obviously, lots of other things happen that are by far worse.

We’ve had a couple of people asking, “Is this a typical experience at a checkpoint? How long might people wait at a checkpoint?” And it really varies, doesn’t it? You can fly through sometimes, no problems and other times, as you said, you can bleed out because you need an operation. There’s no normal there, is there?

Farah:

Yeah. First of all, there’s around a hundred Israeli checkpoints all over the West Bank. These are not inside 48 Palestine in Israel, they are between Palestinian villages and towns and cities and sometimes even central to them. And there’s another 100 or so flying checkpoints that can appear anytime, anywhere. So what it really is this not knowing. Like you said, you could literally go through a checkpoint, it doesn’t take that long, there’s hardly a queue, quick look at your idea and then go through, which in itself is already frustrating and humiliating, frankly.

Like I said, this isn’t an airport and it’s freedom of movement ultimately, why are people being checked as they just go about their daily movements? But of course, then you can also be held up for hours and hours. I’ve been at checkpoints where we’ve just stood there and for no apparent reason. We’ve just been held up.

Diana:

And you’re the only car and you can see them sitting.

Farah:

Yeah. Or we’re a whole crowd of people and no one is actually specifically being held up. Everybody is just being held up and they’re just chatting away and it’s just seems to be on a whim sometimes. And it’s the humiliating process of it all. This particular friend of mine, for example, he said, “Well, if I’d gone through that checkpoint five times in a particular day.” So now we’re talking about 25 times, that’s in five days, “And the same soldiers see me and he knows my house is right there, but each and every time I’m lifting my trousers, lifting my shirt on and on again.” It’s exhausting and very frustrating and very humiliating. And frankly, these checkpoints are there to separate Palestinians from Palestinians.

So it’s not just what they do to you as you are at them, or having to be processed through them and they’re just one part of a much bigger control system that comes under military occupation and an apartheid system, it’s what do those checkpoints do in terms of an entire nation of people? It fragments them, it separates them, it prevents them from connecting or from being together as often as they want to be or collecting together for whatever reason or movement or protest. So it’s part of a very sinister control system.

Diana:

We’ve got a question asking whether you have difficulty traveling in and out or around Israel now as a result of this film and it’s widespread screenings.

Farah:

So far, so good.

Diana:

All right, touch wood. We move on, let’s not jinx it. From Rosamond Robertson, “Yasmin witnesses the routine humiliation of her father at the hands of the IDF, how can she avoid nurturing a deep hostility towards Jewish Israelis? Is she the hope, or is she continuing saga of hatred?” This is the problem, isn’t it? You grow up watching these acts of humiliation, it’s hard not to embody that.

Farah:

It’s a bit of both, I suppose. But ultimately, Yasmin for me in this film very much, of course does inherit the pains and chains of her father and her mother and the adults. And in many ways, at some point he puts this jacket on her when it’s raining and her light has been almost put out. Obviously his intention is not that, it’s to shield her from the rain but it was symbolic for me in the sense that these children are inheriting the traumas and the pains and the humiliations and all of that of their parents. And they are also experiencing those traumas and humiliations as well.

And then when she does actually take the fridge, the blue jacket is off and she’s back in her redness. And in the sense of the younger generation are potentially coming out more defiant and stronger and wiser. That doesn’t mean that they don’t inherit the traumas. And the film isn’t such a happy ending in the sense that, well, what happens tomorrow? Is that checkpoint disappearing? No, it’s going to be there tomorrow. They’re going through it tomorrow. God knows, Maybe after this incident their home will be raided. But in that moment, defiant and pass through and continue.

In the end, I don’t like to refer to this idea of hatefulness because so many Palestinians that I’ve spent time with and met, and I’m talking Palestinians who have seen the inside of Israeli prisons, whose homes have been demolished, whose children have been taken and put in military detention. And I don’t get a sense of hate. Of course, there are people who feel a lot of anger and what could be described as hate, but it’s not baseless hatefulness. It is an idea of, and I’m talking Palestinians, an idea of, we just want to be free, we want to be equal, we want to live our lives, our right to go and come as we please, our right to life and liberty of person. And if that was provided, then we can be done with the hate. What is sad to me is that when I have spoken with various Israelis or have read various articles, or even received various hateful messages, there is a belief that somehow Palestinians are baselessly hateful towards them. Whether that belief has been fed to them or inherited, or I don’t know necessarily and it is built very much in their own traumas. It is as if it is baseless. And this is where there’s a confusion.

So yes, children are going to see and witness their parents go through the traumas and they’re experiencing themselves. And yes, that is not a good platform for building peace, if you like, or for ending the reality. But ultimately, there is an oppressor and an oppressed, there is a coloniser and a colonised. And if the oppressor and the coloniser would stop colonising and stop oppressing, actually the hate, the anger, the hatefulness if you like, should and would eventually end and dissipate.

So it’s about stop inflicting that violence, stop inflicting that humiliation, and then we won’t be in this. But it’s for one side to end that. You understand that Palestinians are stuck in that, whereas is it’s on an oppressor, obviously the oppressed will make every effort and we all are trying to make every effort to end that. But really, it’s the oppressor that-

Diana:

Only one that has the power to make the change.

Farah:

Yes. That is perpetrating the hatefulness. It’s not a two-way perpetration if you like, in that sense.

Diana:

You touched on Palestinians in Palestine, both of us are Palestinians who’ve grown up, not in Palestine, in the UK, for me, largely and for you. And it is surprising, isn’t it? The resilience and the hopefulness that you find amongst the Palestinians that live in the West Bank and under the occupation. I’m in awe of it personally. I don’t know how they manage to stay to like that.

Farah:

What’s funny is that in many of the interviews I’ve had, and also with international audiences, they always say, “Wow, if I were this guy, I would’ve lost my temper much earlier on in the film, but much earlier on in my day.” And it’s always interesting because you always say, well, as a whole population of Palestinians, it’s actually surprising that Palestinians haven’t lost their temper far more far sooner. But there was also this idea that there’s not much of a choice as well, you can only but continue and strive. What are you going to do?

Diana:

I’ve got question from Sir Vincent Fean, who is the chair of the Balfour project.

Farah:

Hi Vincent.

Diana:

Hi Vincent. How did it feel for your Palestinian actors to play the IDF soldiers? They were very convincing. That must have been incredibly hard for them.

Farah:

Yeah. It was really bizarre actually. So the first soldier who puts Yusef in the cage, he’s never acted before. He’s actually a Palestinian that I found at Checkpoint 300, the real checkpoint I referred to earlier on one of my recce trips where he was selling phone cards from 3:00 in the morning until 7:00 and then he goes off to university where he’s studying. So he is really dealing, hustling and I cast him because he looked… It’s interesting because ultimately, and we say in Arabic they are our cousins. I’m not talking about Ashkenazi Israelis who come from Poland and France and Russia necessarily but I am talking about those who are from Arab countries and their blood actually is Arab.

And we all look very similar to each other. So he very easily like an Israeli occupation soldier, he also spoke Hebrew and it was interesting. Anyway I auditioned, we got a few together and it was interesting because you’re not talking about a time in history or period piece, or this was an impressive structure from the past and now we’re just telling a story about it, or it’s happening today but we’re shooting it in some other country or some other place. We’re here, this is the reality.

For example, the female actress who acted the female soldier, her home was raided two weeks later. Avi, the let’s call him the good cop. He, the actual actor had been protesting in Jerusalem and had been arrested a few weeks earlier. This is their life. So to be asked to perform their oppressor, on the one hand is very bizarre but on the other hand, there was Stockholm Syndrome because nearby Palestinians in the area where we built that checkpoint actually started to believe that a real Israeli checkpoint had been erected. And I was horrified at this and they were very distressed and they sent runners out and said, “Please, let them know this isn’t real, we’re just shooting something.”

I was happy because it meant that the checkpoint is very authentic. So that was great. But what happened was when the actors discovered that, oh, people think this is real and there holding weapons and uniform, they had a moment of having a bit of a laugh, which is fine. You’re going to have a bit of a laugh because you get to, because you are frankly the people who are on the receiving end of this anyway. Well, they were having a bit of a laugh all right, all right and then they started playing with the traffic as a joke. And it was funny, but it wasn’t funny.

I was like, “Guys, you need to stop this now. It’s funny for a second but no.” It was weird. I think it’s always weird to be honest.

Diana:

We have a comment here from Maggie. She says, “I’m always amazed at how calm Palestinians can be at the checkpoints. One man said to me, he just kept thinking of his children and what it would mean for them if he got arrested or lost his temper.”

Farah:

Yeah, exactly.

Diana:

Sums it up. We’ve got a question from Meghan, “Would it be a good idea to show this film to Jewish audiences in the UK? Or has it been shown very widely to Jewish audiences?”

Farah:

Yeah, I believe so. I think Jewish audiences are seeing it. Definitely in New York, for example, the film is screened at a couple of festivals that are predominantly for Jewish audiences. I think it’s great if they do. And I believe it’s been seen. And again, with the media coverage that the film got and then the critical acclaim and all of that, I have no doubt that people watched it on Netflix beyond. I’d say Jewish audiences and beyond echo chambers. For sure, I know that. I’ve had numerous people tell me that people that have no knowledge or interest on the reality in Palestine necessarily have also seen the film all across the world. So I’m going to assume that there’s also a big Jewish community that have watched it as well.

Diana:

I have to say, as a Palestinian and sure I speak for all the people that have come along, Palestinians and those working on this issue, we are very incredibly proud of you and we’re very honored that you’ve come along to speak to us. I’m going to wrap up now with a final question and I just want to know what’s next for you? What should we look out for?

Farah:

I am working on a feature and I’m super, super excited about it and you should all be as well. It’s drama thriller, but I can’t say that much more about it at this point in time, but standby.

Diana:

We’ll watch this space and we’ll let our audiences know if you’re on our mailing list. We’ll keep you posted on what Farah is up to as well. You’re having loads of comments thanking you for making the film and for coming along today. I will share all of your comments with Farah so she will see them. It’s now time for me to thank you so much for joining us and to thank our audience as well for coming along and we hope to see you next time. Thank you so much Farah

Farah:

Thank you. Bye. Bye everyone.

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