-By Deborah Young
For movie details, please click here.
Boldly grabbing hold of the central issue at the heart of the
Israel-Palestine conflict—namely, whose land it is that is being
contended by both sides—
Salt of This Sea will certainly make
people talk, even while it fails to fully involve them in its
artificial drama.
Making her first feature film, Palestinian Annemarie Jacir shows
she is a courageous director able to articulate Palestinian pain
and longing to return to the land of their ancestors. But the drama
of a Brooklyn-born waitress who naively travels to Ramallah and
Israeli-occupied Jaffa to live in “her homeland” is depressingly
one-note, a story that never springs to life.
Arriving at Tel Aviv airport, the American Soraya (a fascinatingly
stubborn Suheir Hammad) is hassled by the authorities for her Arab
name. But mere minutes later, she has reached Ramallah, then finds
an apartment and a good-looking escort, Emad (Saleh Bakri, son of
famed actor Mohammed Bakri).
Since they won’t give her back her grandfather’s savings, lost in
1948 when the family was forced into Lebanon, Soraya simply robs a
bank with Emad and pal Marwan (Riyad Ideis). Then everybody slips
through a checkpoint back into Israel, without passports, disguised
as Jews.
Viewers still with the film at this point can savor the shock of
the film’s crucial scene, when Suheir is hosted by the current
renter of her family home in Jaffa, a disarmingly liberal Israeli
girl. “We had lives here. We were robbed,” Suheir tells the girl,
who naturally has no reply.
-
The Hollywood Reporter
Film Review: Salt of This Sea
Interesting thesis film about the Palestinian longing for their homeland. Dramatically, a dud.
Aug 11, 2010
-By Deborah Young
For movie details, please click here.
Boldly grabbing hold of the central issue at the heart of the Israel-Palestine conflict—namely, whose land it is that is being contended by both sides—
Salt of This Sea will certainly make people talk, even while it fails to fully involve them in its artificial drama.
Making her first feature film, Palestinian Annemarie Jacir shows she is a courageous director able to articulate Palestinian pain and longing to return to the land of their ancestors. But the drama of a Brooklyn-born waitress who naively travels to Ramallah and Israeli-occupied Jaffa to live in “her homeland” is depressingly one-note, a story that never springs to life.
Arriving at Tel Aviv airport, the American Soraya (a fascinatingly stubborn Suheir Hammad) is hassled by the authorities for her Arab name. But mere minutes later, she has reached Ramallah, then finds an apartment and a good-looking escort, Emad (Saleh Bakri, son of famed actor Mohammed Bakri).
Since they won’t give her back her grandfather’s savings, lost in 1948 when the family was forced into Lebanon, Soraya simply robs a bank with Emad and pal Marwan (Riyad Ideis). Then everybody slips through a checkpoint back into Israel, without passports, disguised as Jews.
Viewers still with the film at this point can savor the shock of the film’s crucial scene, when Suheir is hosted by the current renter of her family home in Jaffa, a disarmingly liberal Israeli girl. “We had lives here. We were robbed,” Suheir tells the girl, who naturally has no reply.
-
The Hollywood Reporter
