Farah Nabulsi’s Palestinian drama is driven by great performances and palpable anger – The Irish Times

Farah Nabulsi’s captivating debut film reunites the director with Saleh Bakri, who starred in The Present, her Oscar-nominated and BAFTA-winning short film. Bekri plays Basem, a Palestinian teacher who cares deeply for his students, especially Yacoub (Mahmoud Bakri, brother of the protagonist) and Adam (Muhammad Abed Elrahman), two teenagers who live in Basem’s village.

When Israeli forces demolish the boys’ home, an angry Yacoub confronts an Israeli settler (Nael Kanj, who is also the film’s production designer) and is shot. Basem, a former activist, urges Adam to trust in the legal process, even though he knows that, despite the best efforts of his campaign lawyer (Einat Weizmann), the odds are stacked against him.

The teacher has not completely left his radical past behind him. Cryptic messages about a local fruit seller and a gun hidden in a book initiate a parallel storyline in which an American diplomat (Stanley Townsend) searches for his kidnapped son Nathaniel. The soldier’s captors are willing to release him in exchange for the release of 1,200 Palestinian prisoners. The IDF responds with nerve-wracking house searches.

Nabulsi’s script is based on the hostage negotiations for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was held by Palestinian militants from June 2006 to October 2011. The British-Palestinian writer and director is more interested in mirrored lives and shared traumas than the fraught politics of the West Bank.

Carefully timed flashbacks show Basem with his now estranged wife and his deceased son. A British volunteer (Imogen Poots) offers a chance for a fresh start. The teacher welcomes Adam into his home as a surrogate son, but cannot suppress the boy’s righteous indignation.

The parallel father-son storylines may seem a little too tidy, but Nabulsi’s film is driven by great performances and palpable anger.

There will be a special screening of The Teacher on Thursday, October 3rd Lighthouse cinemain Dublin, will be followed by a question and answer session with Farah Nabulsi and Saleh Bakri