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Palestinian heartbreak
MARIA DUARTE recommends a rare and timely drama that explores brilliantly the agonised life lived under Israeli occupation in the West Bank
PALESTINIAN POINT OF VIEW: Muhammad Abed El Rahman and Saleh Bakri in Farah Nabulsi’s The Teacher
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The Teacher (12A)
Directed by Farah Nabulsi
INSPIRED by true events, Farah Nabulsi’s impressive directorial debut feature takes you on a powerful and emotional journey into the lives and experiences of Palestinians living under colonisation and Israeli military occupation.
The film, written and directed by the Palestinian/British film-maker, follows Palestinian schoolteacher Basem (Saleh Bakri) who struggles to accommodate his commitment to political resistance with his attempts to befriend and provide emotional support to a student Adam (Muhammad Abed El Rahman) as well as deal with a blossoming romance with an English volunteer school worker (Imogen Poots).
Filmed in the West Bank, it is a slow-burning drama which explores the injustices, and the lack of recourse, faced by Palestinians. When Adam watches his brother Yacoub (Mahmoud Bakri who is Saleh’s youngest brother) being shot dead by an Israeli settler who had been setting fire to their olive trees, he is gripped by hatred and the desire for revenge, and even more so when the killer gets off scot-free.
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