#farha

[akajustmerry]

anyways, instead of focusing all your energy on calling out Succession and the Last of Us for being anti-palestinian, here's some of my favourite media made by Palestinians 🇵🇸 and their allies...

Salt of this Sea (2008). Dir. Annemarie Jacir. Heist film set in Palestine about 2 Palestinians who help a Palestinian American woman rob a British bank who refused to give her the money her grandfather left her.

Netflix original series, Mo, created by Mo Amer. Dramedy about Mo, a Palestinian American without papers, trying to stay out of trouble until his US citizenship is approved (he's already been waiting for 12 years). This just got renewed for a second season!!!!

Farha (2021). Dir. Darin J. Sallam. Coming of age story about a 14 year old girl trying to survive the Nakba in 1948. Tw: settler colonial violence.

In Between (2016). Dir. Maysaloun Hamoud. A film about 3 Palestinian women, one of whom is queer, in their 20s living under occupation. Heart-warming story about friendship, solidarity and revenge. Tw: sexual assault.

In Vitro (2019). Dir. Larissa Sansour. Breathtaking short scifi film set in a future where Bethlehem has been destroyed by an ecological disaster and two scientists from different generations are trying to remember what happened. This film is pure poetry and I think about it constantly.

It Must Be Heaven (2019). Dir. Elia Sulieman. A charmingly absurdist film about Elia Sulieman seeing parallels to Palestine everywhere he goes as he tries to make a film about his homeland.

The Crossing (2017). Dir. Ameen Nayfeh. Short film about Palestinian siblings trying to cross an Israeli checkpoint to visit their grandparents.

Ramy. Episode 3 of season 3: 'American Cigarettes'. Far and away the best episode of TV of 2022, and also directed by Annemarie Jacir. Ramy goes to occupied Palestine to make a diamond deal with some Israeli brokers, but his horniness takes him to The Other Side. I think about this episode almost everyday, it's unlike anything I've ever seen.

Freedom Is A Constant Struggle by Angela Davis. A book of interviews and essays conducted by Angela Davis on how systems of racism and colonial violence are all connected, and how solidarity between communities of colour are vital, using the long-standing allyship between Palestinians, Aboriginal peoples and Black Americans as case studies.

As fine and good as it is to call out Zionism in media, rmr to also support Palestinians, their work and their art. Feel free to suggest more ❤️

[palipunk]

Farha (2021) is a movie about the Palestinian Nakba that’s just been put on Netflix, it’s a portrayal of the violence experienced by Palestinians during Israel’s creation from the perspective of a 14 year old girl - to my knowledge, this is the first film about the story of the Nakba on Netflix. (If you don’t know the history of the Nakba - this post can explain it quickly)

The movie is being received with a lot of praise from Palestinians online, however, the movie is currently being review bombed by zionists and condemned by the Israeli press and there have been threats towards showing of the film by Israel’s finance minister, this is the IMDb review page as of posting this:

If you would like to help support this film and Palestinian history being portrayed, please leave a positive review, and if you have Netflix, watch the film. The story of the Nakba has one that has long been silenced and it’s so rare to see it even acknowledged in media, my family survived it, many others didn’t, what they all experienced was real, and it’s about time there has been recognition of it.

[stream]

FARHA (2021) dir. Darin J. Sallam

“Almost all Palestinians in the center and to the south are now displaced. And they are seeking refuge elsewhere. And ever since my family was entrusted with this village, all we care about is to keep the land safe as well as people's lives.”

[swanasource]

[angelstills]

فرحة / Farha (2021)

[cinematicjourney]

Farha (2021) | dir. Darin J. Sallam

[fuckyeahcostumedramas]

Karam Taher as the titular character in Farha (Film, 2021).

[jyndor]

spoilers for farha, which you all should watch but is very, very brutal even if it is not terribly graphic.

tw: infant murder, settler colonial violence. read with caution.

the scene where the one israeli genocider doesn't end up killing the infant is such a powerful scene for a number of reasons. but one aspect of it that sticks out to me is that when his commanding genocider tells him not to "waste a bullet" and he can't go through with curb stomping the fucking newborn to death, he ultimately condemns the baby to a crueler death - to starve to death, alone in the night, beside his family's bodies.

it is of course a crueler death, and I am sure the soldier is aware of what will become of that baby when he places the kerchief over his face and walks away. but this moment is not about the soldier being decent or kind at all, of course - if he was halfway decent he would die rather than kill that baby.

he doesn't care what will happen to that baby as long as he doesn't have to bear witness to it. to cover the baby's face is to cover his eyes to the cruelty of his and by extension israel's actions. it makes him uncomfortable to think of curb stomping a baby to death, but not of starving him. of leaving him alone and screaming.

he doesn't even consider for a second disobeying the order and shooting the baby, putting him out of his misery - as horrific as that would be.

because it isn't about the baby for him - it is about HIS comfort. he's comfortable with ethnic cleansing, he's comfortable with terrorizing a woman who has just given birth and her family, it is not at all about shame or horror or a tiny spot of decency in him. he's just not comfortable with having to step on a baby and kill him.

he is more comfortable with letting that baby starve out of sight than he is taking direct action against him.

this is the liberal zionist or frankly the liberal colonizer even beyond zionism - because it's all connected. as long as they do not have to be the ones to crush the infant to death under their boot, as long as they can shield their eyes from the brutality of their country, they'll take that option.

I think about israelis living so close to the gaza strip, living in relative security and having food and shelter and yes bomb shelters because THEY are citizens of a settler colonial state and people who are being colonized are going to resist the violence of occupation.

I think about how generally they are so removed and detached from the brutality of what israel does to palestinians, and how after oct 7th, many people who considered themselves liberal zionists went completely apeshit racist and genocidal, and this is according to actual peace activists in israel, actual anti-zionists in israel, actual leftists in israel. the ones who have refused to cover their eyes to the realities of the occupation and the genocide.

you see it on social media - people who consider themselves non-zionists or liberal zionists have been laughing at hateful genocidal zionist memes, and centering their own pain, and it reminds me of how liberals in the united states will do ANYTHING not to witness the horrors of us imperialism when it threatens their comfort.

this is not unique to zionists, this is a symptom of settler colonialism. I do believe that sometimes liberals can do better than that, but they often end up useless as allies to resistance, actual resistance, when it fucking matters the most.

so many liberal americans will continue to watch their favorite racist shows or buy disposable vapes or support joe biden, and they'll make all kinds of excuses about why they have to but the truth is this: they value their comfort more than they care about genocide.

I mean frankly even I do to some extent. I pay my taxes. I'm not gonna go to prison on tax evasion because I want to make a point about genocide. I wish I had the courage of my convictions to that level but I don't. I know that I would never go serve in the military even if it was conscription, I'd go to jail for that but that's never been a real concern for me here.

meanwhile, there are people who do not have the comfort to lose. in the film, farha does not have the privilege to choose comfort. she can close her eyes, she can look away, but she hears the baby cry and cry and cry until the baby passes away. she has no choice.

in choosing his own comfort, the soldier unknowingly condemns a child to witness trauma he can choose to ignore. now farha, a 14 year old girl, has to live with not being able to free herself from her sanctuary/prison to save the baby.

a 14 year old girl injures herself to save a baby, but a grown man covers a baby's face and lets it starve so he can live with himself. he still murdered that baby, but he'll tell himself that he didn't.

people often say they know what they'd have done if they'd lived during the holocaust or other atrocities. but honestly these same people don't do shit now. they cover their eyes.

if you're going to accept the deaths of innocent people, at least say that your comfort, your security, matters more to you than their lives.

because it clearly does.

anyway go watch farha on netflix.

[summoneryuna]

FARHA (2021)

Costume Design by Jamila Aladdin

[historical-beauty-lily]

Farha (2021) dir. Darin J. Sallam

[beardeddetectivepaper]

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by brittany • bookstagram (@bookish.millennial)

[winterdusktales]

Farha (2021) — dir. Darin J. Sallam

[kvtnisseverdeen]

GET TO KNOW ME MEME: FAVORITE FILMS

↳ FARHA (2021) dir. Darin J. Sallam

“Almost all Palestinians in the center and to the south are now displaced. And they are seeking refuge elsewhere. And ever since my family was entrusted with this village, all we care about is to keep the land safe as well as people's lives.”

[cetra]

Get out of here! Leave! Leave and never come back!

[swanasource]

Some 2021-2022 Films by SWANA Women

Sirens (2022). Dir. Rita Baghdadi

Long Line of Ladies (2022). Dir. Rayka Zehtabchi & Shaandiin Tome

Aurora's Sunrise (2022). Dir. Inna Sahakyan

Costa Brava Lebanon (2021). Dir. Mounia Akl

The Swimmers (2022). Dir. Sally El Hosaini

The Blue Caftan (2022). Dir. Maryam Touzani

Orca (2021). Dir. Sahar Mosayebi

Farha (2021). Dir. Darin J. Sallam

[cinematicjourney]

Farha (2021) | dir. Darin J. Sallam