Karam Tahir in ‘Farah’ | photo credit: netflix
Centering its story around a teenage girl about the effects of war, farahJordan’s official entry for the Academy Awards succinctly puts forth its message, conveying the brutality of violence through a barebones narrative.
Director Darrin J. sallam movie starts with sunset British Mandate for Palestineand leads to the start of the First Arab–Israeli War of 1948. It tells the story of a few days in the life of Farah (Karam Taher), a 14-year-old girl who dreams of moving out of her small Palestinian village and going to the city for her formal education.
The timeline that the film follows is part of what is referred to by Palestinians as the ‘Nakba’ (extermination). According to the United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, the 1948 war caused “more than half the Palestinian Arab population” to flee or be expelled. on November 30, 2022 United Nations General Assembly The Palestinian Rights Division passed a resolution to “dedicate its activities in 2023 to the commemoration of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Nakba”.
Farah’s determination, a driving force that even manages to get her father to allow her to move to the city, is stopped in her tracks as the conflict reaches her village. This forms the foundation on which the film rests itself – that the first casualties of war are not politicians, but civilians who are thrust to an unnatural end.
Farah (Arabic)
the director: Darrin J. Sallam
Throw: Karam Taher, Ashraf Barhom, Ali Suleman, Tala Gamoh and others
Duration: 92 minutes
Story: As the violence of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War reaches the doorstep of a small Palestinian village, a teenage girl is exposed to the brutalities of war as she struggles to survive
Sallam, in his first feature-length film, uses creative tools to hammer in the aberration that war causes to normal life. Cinematography and set design transition from fairy-tale-like scenes of Farah’s village in bright colors during a wedding scene to Farah and her friends resting by a small waterfall, and dusty streets as the conflict begins, and end gets transferred to. Tightly composed images of Farah shrouded in darkness as she finds herself surrounded by violence.
This descent into devastation is also marked by sudden changes; As Farah and her friend Farida excitedly discuss realizing their dreams of studying in a city, and what their prospects with formal education would look like, the conversation is interrupted by the sound of an explosion in the village, signaling the beginning of the conflict. marks it. This once again drives home the point of how the lives of citizens hang in the balance indefinitely.
A major part of the 92-minute film takes place in a food storeroom where Farah is locked by her father for her safety. For the next few days Farha’s life is largely shrouded in darkness as she is only able to make out what is happening outside through a small hole in the wall. The battle outside his hiding place is depicted mostly through the sounds he hears. The incessant crackle and burst of gunfire, and the menacing boom of bombs fill the storeroom as Farha wails, and the audience is left to wonder how far away the danger really is.
In interviews, Sallam has described the story as “coming-of-age”, successfully executed in the transformations Farah is made into as a silent witness to atrocities. When the gunfire finally subsides, and Farah manages to find a way to hide, she returns to the places she used to visit days before, but now both are changed – from a fairy tale village to rubble. has changed, and Farah’s heart is heavy with the horrors she has seen.
Through impactful and simple storytelling, in farahAnd Karam Taher In a thought-provoking debut, the war is shown through the eyes of those whose voices never reach the negotiating table, its most burdened participants.
Farah is currently available for streaming on Netflix