/ARTS WEEKLY/FILM-PALESTINE: Occupation Comes Home

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Samuele Gabbio

ROME, Sep 8 2004 (IPS) - The open-air cinema at Piazza Vittorio is full, but people are still walking in as Saverio Costanzo explains his film ‘Private’ to the audience.

The award-winning film at the 57th Locarno film festival in Switzerland delves into the everyday lives of people living in Palestinian-occupied territories, putting on camera actors from both sides.

The young Italian director Costanzo brought Israeli and Palestinian actors together in a simple and tough movie, charged with symbolic images but free from pious rhetoric or political stands. "It doesn’t have a line, but it is a political movie," Costanzo told IPS. – I just tried to offer a different point of view."

People from each group speak their mother tongue in the film, or English when they talk to one another.

The director chose the psychodrama technique and a meagre documentary- style use of the camera, splattered with poetical, human moments. The psychodrama technique allows the actors to put on stage their personal experiences under controlled provocation.

Costanzo says the script was inspired by an encounter he had in Palestine with an Arab intellectual who carried ôa very strong message of peace".

This man is Mohammad in the movie. He is a Palestinian who teaches English, and who decides to resist, with his wife and children, the occupation of his house by a group of Israeli soldiers.

The small house becomes a metaphor for the occupied territories.

Israeli soldiers break into the house and impose strict rules: from now on, they say this house is occupied and will be divided in three parts: part A is where you are allowed to live and move around – part B where you can go only with our permission – – and part C which is absolutely off limits, and where they could pay for any transgression with their lives.

Mohammad asks for permission to take some clothing from the ôforbidden". The soldier in charge replies: ôBe my guest."

The value of this film lies in its capacity to reach beyond political matters to offer a vision of human realities behind the occupation.

The young boy who dreams of becoming a suicide bomber, the little child who laughs at the frivolities of the occupiers, the soldier who likes playing the fiddle – these are just some of the Private aspects of military occupation.

Another striking aspect of the film is the cast: the teacher is played by Mohammad Bakri, a Palestinian actor and director (famous for his documentary ‘Jenin, Jenin’), while the soldier in charge of the Israeli troops occupying the house is Lior Miller, a TV star in Israel.

According to Costanzo, before doing this film Lior was a star for those Israelis who do not know the first thing about life in the occupied territories.

To back the last images of the movie, the author chose Roger Water’s song ‘Perfect Sense’ that effectively describes the absurdity of circular violence with words such as: ôAnd the Germans killed the Jews, And the Jews killed the Arabs, And the Arabs killed the hostages, And that is the news."

The Swiss film festival is an important showcase for international independent productions, and has served in the past to showcase directors such as Abbas Kiarostami, Alain Cavalier and Gus Van Sant.

The film will be screened at the Haifa International Film Festival beginning Sep. 29. Costanzo says he is really eager to see the reaction of the Israeli audience.