Reviews

Review: "Route 181: Fragments of a Journey in Palestine-Israel"

Maureen Clare Murphy 13 June 2004


Capturing the fragments of a land shattered by politics, history, and colonialism, Route 181: Fragments of a Journey in Israel-Palestine, clocks in at about four and a half hours. The film’s length is epic-worthy, but it allows the filmmakers to present oral history from a wide variety of people who live along the 1947 partition line, while at the same time allow for minutes-long footage of the monotonous grey concrete wall that quietly runs along one of the region’s main roads. By portraying both the divide of the physical landscape and that of the humans that inhabit it, viewers receive a fuller understanding of this conflicted part of the world. 

Film review: "Planet of the Arabs" and "Arabs A Go-Go"

Maureen Clare Murphy 6 June 2004


Based off of Jack Shaheen’s excellent anthology Reel Bad Arabs, which categorically catalogues depictions of Arabs in American film, Planet of the Arabs, while not without humor, reminds us that racist depictions of Arabs in American entertainment is a huge problem. And Arabs A Go-Go is Jacqueline Salloum’s modest attempt to contradict the racist tripe that Hollywood presents as Arab culture. Maureen Clare Murphy reviews the two short films, featured in the Chicago Palestine Film Fest, for EI. 

Film review: Remembering Palestine and Writers on the Borders

Maureen Clare Murphy 3 June 2004


Like every other aspect of Palestinian life, art and culture, though not destroyed, have been crushed under the heavy weight of the Israeli occupation’s tanks and curfews. The documentary films Writers on the Borders and Remembering Palestine feature international writers and artists who visit Palestine and find a shocking landscape of destruction. But, as the narrator Dominique Dubosc explains in Remembering, the question is not so much one of succeeding to restart art schools in the West Bank and Gaza, as being there to bear witness. 

Film review: Jihad!

Maureen Clare Murphy 2 June 2004


Boldly using one of the most misused words in the U.S. press as its title, a word that strikes at the greatest anxiety of Americans towards Islam, the new feature film Jihad! informs its viewers that what the word is really about is zeal and struggle. Following Ed, a young Palestinian New Yorker who struggles between his homeland’s tradition and the American lifestyle, the film stresses that the most important jihad is the struggle within oneself. Read the review of Palestinian-American Muhammed Rum’s film, to be premiered at the Chicago Palestine Film Festival this week. 

Film review: Ford Transit

Maureen Clare Murphy 30 May 2004


“Staying in one place is killing me,” says Rajai, the charismatic West Bank refugee who serves as the center of the Palestinian feature film Ford Transit. Although this comment was made while explaining his unorthodox career choice of being a taxi driver, Rajai’s attitude can be applied on a larger level to describe the feeling of a generation of refugees who live under the thumb of Israeli occupation. Read the rest of the review of this excellent new film by acclaimed Palestinian director Hany Abu Asad. 

Film review: James' Journey to Jerusalem meets complex road blocks

Maureen Clare Murphy 19 March 2004


If the purpose of a pilgrimage is to reawaken or reaffirm one’s spirituality, James, the title character of the new Israeli film James’ Journey to Jerusalem, certainly does that. However, the idealistic young African’s journey is fraught with unexpected and difficult detours, putting his faith on trial as he becomes seduced by consumerism and power. And while the film is plagued with technical problems, its success lies in the complication of its characters and its universal allegorical message regarding consumerism, power, and religion. 

Film Review: Like Twenty Impossibles (2003)

Tina Dybvik 27 January 2004


“Like Twenty Impossibles” is the work of Annemarie Jacir, co-written with Kamran Rastegar. Jacir is a Palestinian filmmaker, activist, and poet living between New York City and Palestine. The 17-minute short mockumentary tells the story of a journey in a country where checkpoints and a sinister patchwork of controlled areas make freedom of movement itself impossible, aptly portraying the complexities of oppression with a cast and crew that understand it. It is shot on location in Palestine, and the images of guns and power overwhelm the viewer as well as the waylaid film crew. 

Review: Poster art of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Maureen Clare Murphy 16 January 2004


Dan Walsh, creator of the online exhibition Antonym/Synonym: The Poster Art of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, thinks that taking a look at political posters can enable “a new democratic discussion.” His website, Liberation Graphics, which features over 100 posters, a mere fraction of his collection, can only be described as a labor of love. Each poster is catalogued with an essay that both analyzes the poster’s formal and conceptual qualities, and places the subject matter within a brief historical context. 

Review: Arna's Children

Arjan El Fassed 11 December 2003


Speechless. Silent. I could not move. I just sat there, watching the screen, the scrolling text of dedication and the names of Arna’s children: Youssef, Nidal, Ashraf, and Ala. Arna’s children form a small theatre group of Palestinian children in Jenin. Arna’s son Juliano, director of this film, was directing the theatre group. All those years, from 1989 to 1996, Juliano filmed the rehearsals and performances of the plays. He films Ala sitting on the ruins of his home blown up by Israeli soldiers, growing up to become a fighter in Jenin. EI’s Arjan El Fassed saw the film and comments. 

Book review: Resistance - My Life for Lebanon

Maureen Clare Murphy 18 December 2003


The greatest struggle in Soha Béchara’s life was not plotting to assassinate Antoine Lahad, the Lebanese chief of militia in Israeli-occupied Southern Lebanon during the 1980s. Rather, her true test was somewhat parallel to that of her home country of Lebanon — to survive living under the tyranny of the occupying Israelis. But in Béchara’s case, her prison was a literal one. However, Béchara’s memoirs are missing that extra layer of narration that would let readers in on the true mental process of someone who is ready to give their life for their country.