Film: Farha

Karam Taher plays Farha

This powerful film tells the story of a 14 year-old Palestinian girl during the Nakba, the displacement of Palestinians from their homeland in 1948 when the State of Israel was established.

Farhah is a Quranic name girl's name meaning 'A Joyous Time'. The serene opening scenes in the film show the beauty of Palestinian village life in the 1940s: the honey-coloured stone buildings, olive and fig trees.

Farha, sensitively played by Jordanian actress Karam Taher, is a thoughtful and quiet young teenager. Wearing an embroidered headscarf and long dress, she confides with her friend from the city about how much she wants to go to school. Her Dad, the town mayor would prefer her to stay home in the country, learn the Qu'ran with the local Imam and get married to a local boy. But her uncle persuades him to allow Farha to come to the city, live with his family and attend school there - where she will have a chance to study more subjects.

Things are looking up. Farha has such high hopes, but her dream gradually falls apart when the Israeli soldiers arrive. Her Dad hides her in a dark cramped storage cupboard where she waits and waits and waits.... listening to terrifying sounds outside and witnessing some atrocities through a small crack in the door. It's a harrowing watch. There are many parallels with the Anne Frank story here - (although Farha does get out alive.)

Some Israeli figures have claimed the film has created "a false narrative" about the Nakba. Israel's outgoing finance minister, Avigdor Lieberman, said in a statement. "It's crazy that Netflix decided to stream a movie whose whole purpose is to create a false pretence and incite against Israeli soldiers."

But director Darin J Sallam says she wrote the script based on a true story she was told as a child by her mother. She said she decided to make the film "Not because I'm political, but because I'm loyal to the story that I heard."

And that story is one which many thousands of elderly Palestinians, and their children and grandchildren, still languishing in refugee camps in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon and Jordan will recognise all too clearly.

Farha premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2021. It won the Best Youth Feature Film category at the 2022 Asia Pacific Screen Awards, and began airing on Netflix last month. The film is Jordan's submission in the Best International Feature Film category at the 95th Academy Awards in March.

This film is a fitting companion to the Netflix 2021 Palestinian Movie Collection.

See: www.indcatholicnews.com/news/43292 (Ave Maria and The Present are particularly good.)

Read a more in-depth review here: www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/1653553

Watch a trailer for Farha here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=3STq43E2HcU