Haifa-based Arab-Israeli scriptwriter Suha Arraf won much acclaim with films such as Syrian Bride and Lemon Tree, where she collaborated with Israeli director Eran Riklis. But her directorial debut, Villa Touma, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival, has caused huge controversy in Israel.
This is because she made the film using funds from the Israel Film Fund, but submitted it to the festival as Palestinian — causing the Israel Culture Ministry to demand that she return the $500,000 (Dh1.83 million) fund used to make it.
Consequently, the movie, which has been selected to be screened at more than 12 festivals around the world, including the upcoming Toronto Film Festival, will have no country name — quite unprecedented in the international film festival circuit.
The film itself is gentle, moving and is a humane, not political, drama. It centres around three aristocratic Christian spinsters, who lead lonely, isolated lives in their family home, until their young niece, an orphan, comes to stay and upsets their equilibrium. While the cast is Palestinian, the crew were all from Israel. But there’s no doubt that the arresting film will win plaudits during its global run of film festivals.
Arraf believes she is caught up in mounting hostility towards Arabs in Israel, heightened by the recent Gaza conflict.
“I think if my film came before the war, maybe they would talk about why it’s Palestinian and not Israeli, but not a storm like this,” the director said during an interview in Venice.
“I think Gaza has made people totally crazy. We’ve suffered, as Palestinians inside Israel, a lot in the last two months.” She said Arabs had been harassed on the street and some Israelis had boycotted Arab-owned shops and restaurants.
“What’s happening to me, Suha, as a director is part of what is happening to all the Palestinians inside Israel in the last two months,” she said.
She spoke to tabloid!.
Why did you choose Christian characters for the film?
I chose Christian characters because the story is set in Ramallah, a city that had a 70 per cent Christian population before the 1967 war, when many of them fled the country. This issue has never been addressed
Tell us about the wonderful Palestinian actresses.
Two of them, Maria Zreik and Nasreen Faour, live in Haifa, Israel. Cherien Dabis lives in the US, and Ula Tabari lives in France.
Where did you shoot the film?
I shot the interiors in Haifa, and the exteriors in Ramallah. We had a very limited schedule of 24 days.
Did you expect this gentle film to cause such a huge controversy ?
Not at all. I expected it to be recognised as a piece of cinematic art and not a political storm.
Why did you opt to take money from the Israel Film Fund?
I did try to get funding from the main funds in France and Germany, as well as Doha, Dubai and Abu Dhabi, but it was turned down by them all. So, I didn’t have much choice. But I am not the first to get Israeli money. We Palestinians in Israel are 20 per cent of the population, and our taxes finance these film funds. As a citizen and a taxpayer, it is my right to access these funds.
What was the backlash you experienced?
When I called the film Palestinian, the Culture Ministry considered me an enemy, and started a witchhunt against me. I faced a lot of hate speech, threats and racist abuse, with many calling for me to be killed or get deported to Gaza. I had to close my social networking accounts and block my phone numbers. They then resorted to shouting racist abuse at my relatives, and also others who had the same surname as me.
What were the reactions among the film community in Palestine and Israel?
The Palestinian film community made a petition to support me and my decision to express my Palestinian cultural identity through my film. I also got many friendly calls from leading Jewish Israeli filmmakers who signed a petition against the Minister’s decision to demand my funding back.
How do you react to your film having no country name or identity ?
I know the ‘identity’ of my film, of course. Stating that it has ‘no country’ reflects the situation of me and my people, who are refugees in their own country.
As a Palestinian living in Israel, what problems do you and your community face?
Where do I start? We are a minority, and treated like second-class citizens with limited rights and a whole security apparatus working against us instead of protecting us. We are silenced whenever we ask for our basic rights, we don’t get our equal share in government investment, funding, education, infrastructure. We are always treated as guilty, until proven innocent.
Do you think you can continue making films in Israel ?
I have a new screenplay called Parched, which I am writing and will direct. I am also writing two feature screenplays for other directors. As for making films in Israel, I’m pretty sure I have been blacklisted by all the Israeli funds, even though as a taxpayer I’m entitled to apply. But I will continue to tell stories from my region.
— With inputs from AP