Displaying items by tag: Adam Bakri

ALL THAT’S LEFT OF YOU/ Ally baqi mink

Germany/Cyprus, Occupied Palestine, 2025, 146 minutes, Colour.

Cherien Dabis, Mohammed Bakri, Saleh Bakri, Adam Bakri, Muhammed Abed Elrahhmen.

Directed by Cherien Dabis.

Palestine and Israel.

This quite long film, almost 2 ½ hours, opening with the first intifada in 1988. Some teenagers, away from school, becoming involved in the protest, one of them shot and severely wounded. His mother, full-screen close-up and talking to camera, urges the audience to reflect deeply on this event and proceeds to tell the family story.

In fact, the mother is played by the writer-director. Cherien Dabis, an American with Palestinian background drawing on her experience in the United States after 911 and anti-Arab violent reaction and some of the humiliations during travel. She has made a demanding film, the narrative then going back and spending some time in 1948, the period of the establishing of the state of Israel, the experience of the Nakba, the displacement of the resident Palestinians, focusing on a rather well-to-do Palestinian family, comfortable home, a beautiful orange grove, then bombardment of the grove, the father sending his family to a settlement for safety, his arrest, humiliating treatment, sentenced to hard labour. He is eventually released and joins his family. He has a cultured background, and communicates this especially to his very young son.

The narrative then moves on 30 years, to 1978, some practical acceptance of the displacement and the situation, politically, socially, religiously, of living in the West Bank. The little boy of 1948 has grown up, has his family, is a genial teacher of children. While it isn’t emphasised, the audience who is aware of the history of the Palestinians in the West Bank, will know the limitations from the loss of previous property, the challenges to bringing up a family. And, this is strikingly presented in what could have been an everyday occurrence at this time, curfew, changes in regulation, young Israeli soldiers challenging the father in front of his son, mocked, held at gunpoint, urged to say degrading things about his wife – which have dire consequences for the young son and his loss of esteem for his father.

And the son, back to 1988, is the teen who goes to the protest and is shot.

More harrowing limitations of life in the West Bank, the possibility of transferring the boy to a hospital in Haifa, extremely demanding regulations on identity, limited office hours to make applications…

And it is an all these scenes that Cherien Dabis, not only with her writing and directing, but with her intense performance as the mother, challenges the audience. And surprisingly, and movingly, after a routine request for donation of the boy’s organs, this theme, Palestinian organs in the Jewish recipient, raises the real, the emotional, issues of common humanity.

There is more, some decades later, the film finishing in 2022. But, the massacre by Hamas was to take place a year later and the whole history of Israel, Gaza, the West Bank was violently changed, and the film was released around the world at the time of the America-Israel war with Iran with who knows what consequences for the whole world.

1. The history of Palestine? Audience understanding, centuries of tradition, Arabs and Jews, the British mandate, the state of Israel, the Nakba, the displacement of the Palestinians, the occupation of the West Bank, Israeli dominance, intifada. the film is seen in the light of the mid 2020s, Hamas massacre, occupation and destruction of Gaza, attacks on Lebanon, war with Iran?
2. The perspective of the director, American, Arab background, identity, political work, media interests work in the US? Her films? The intensity of emotion behind the writing and directing here?
3. The impact for world audiences, for Palestinian audiences, for Israeli audiences?
4. The opening, 1988, the first intifada, the young men, school, demonstrations, the police response, shootings, the response of Hanan, talking directly to screen, the writer-director speaking to the audience?
5. 1948, the family, the tradition, the comfortable house, the orange orchards, Sharif and his personality, proud, love for his son, poetry, outings with Salim, relationship with his wife, the other children? Sounds of bombardment, his optimism, the reality of the state of Israel, the Israeli troops, the taking over of properties, the local meetings of the men, the mayor, whether to stay or to move to Lebanon or Jordan and elsewhere, his decision to stay, the bombardment and the ruin of the oranges, sending his family to live with the uncle?
6. His staying, his being taken, treatment, imprisonment, hard labour, the brutality? The surprise of his arrival, the family living in displacement, comfortable with the uncle, the cousins, going down to the tent area settlements, comparisons, lining up for food…?
7. 1978, 30 years later, Salim and his marriage to Hanan, their children, Salim as a teacher, playfully with the children, Noor in the class, the family surviving, comparative prospering, Sharif, living with the family, his age, heart condition, the visit of doctor, his memory lapses, sleepwalking, remembering his wife, her diabetes and injections, lack of medicine, her death? His loyalty to the family home, instilling that in the grandchildren?
8. Salim and his son going for the medicine, the curfew and erratic, held up by the soldiers, Salim being humiliated, to insult his wife in front of his son, his cowering, the boy’s reaction, not speaking to his father, resentful, thinking him a coward? The effect on Salim, not communicating this with Hanan? Taking its toll?
9. 1988, the return to the opening of the film, the protest, the boys, Noor wounded, his mother hurrying to the scene, the possibility of the catscan in Haifa, the complications of documentation, lining up, the office hours, the need for the documents, searching for Noor’s identity card, with his friend, the ambulance, going to Haifa, the doctor, prognostication, the surgery, brain dead, the bullet bursting in his brain, the ventilator keeping him alive? The grief of his parents, their constant presence?
10. The film focusing on organ donation and its repercussions? The official asking the parents, their hostile reaction? Hanan reconsidering, the discussions with Salim, the consultations with the imam, the interpretation of the Quran, possibilities for organ donation? The meeting with the authorities, specifying that it be known that the donation was Palestinian? The effect on the couple? The family? And the intimations of the future demonstrations and intifada?
11. The meeting between Hanan and the recipient of the heart, the tension, his hesitation, seeming resentment, Hanan and her desperation and feelings, his not serving in the army because of medical conditions, her having to leave, his not reaching out, the consequences for him?
12. 2022, the changing situation, the couple coming from Canada, the decision to visit Jaffa, Hanan not having seen it, Salim and his memories, wanting to pack, her plea for the day, their walking round, the reminiscences, the Arab Café and the conversation, the memories, the house still standing but a ruin, taking the photos, Salim and his experience from 1948 to 2022, more successful and survival than so many who stayed in the occupied West Bank, in Gaza, and the fate of Gaza in the mid 2020s?