At the core of the Oscar-nominated filmmaker’s first feature is a clear understanding of the power of the perpetually perpetrated injustice on the Palestinian people.
I know, hardly a great sentence to kick start my review with — filled with never ending alliterations. But truth be told, Palestinian-British filmmaker Farah Nabulsi’s feature debut The Teacher doesn’t need brilliant writing on my part. The film is a must-watch gem in itself and reveals so much, even in the places and scenes where we think we aren’t being taught anything.
The story of English teacher Basem (Saleh Bakri) living in the West Bank is layered and complex. On the one side, it could be an action film about the abduction of a Jewish American who is in the country serving in the Israel Defense Forces and the activities focused around securing his return. On the other, it could be seen as an (im)possible love story between Basem and Londoner Lisa (Imogen Poots) who works at the same school where he teaches. A third angle could be a spy, people-aren’t-who-you-think-they-are edge of your seat thriller, with the addition of the soldier’s parents, the Cohens, played brilliantly by Stanley Townsend and Andrea Irvine.
But if all three, or any of the above scenarios were true, this would not be a film by the Oscar-nominated Nabulsi, whose previous short, The Present proved truly a gift.
With The Teacher, Nabulsi continues what she started with her short. She focuses on the injustice, the subtle yet constant humiliation of the Palestinians, on the infractions perpetrated by the Israelis, and on the formers’ lives as second-class citizens in a land which is the only home they have ever known, and at best were meant to share.
This proves a brilliant set up for a film that digs deep while also leaving most of the resolutions to the viewers themselves. The filmmaker doesn’t feed us obvious resolves, or offers up clear heroes and foes in shades of black and white, instead focusing on the loss that we, humanity as a whole suffer from this ongoing injustice.
There is no hope, there is no solution, and if the actions of the past year, since that now infamous October 7th, have proven anything is that we are all screwed when it comes to the Palestinian-Israeli war. This is the brilliance of The Teacher, which in its measured telling of a hard truth, manages to change us without hand-feeding us with ideals and broad stroked stereotypes.
Early on in the film, we realize that Bakri’s Basem is not who he seems to be at first. Stoic, calm and intense — something which comes naturally to the actor and is part of his inner fabric as a man and a Palestinian — this teacher has a double life, or better yet, comes from a different past than what his present shows. His affection for his students, two brothers named Yacoub (also played by a Bakri sibling, Mahmood) and Adam (Muhammad Abed El Rahman) and his help in their family’s times of need, soon reveal his secret to the audience, but also bring Lisa more deeply into his life. She will prove the perfect romantic balance in a film that could easily become too sad to watch, in the hands of a lesser filmmaker.
It is difficult to portray a European woman in a Palestinian setting without giving her a “white savior” complex, yet Nabulsi manages to avoid this cinematic pitfall and the result is a well drawn woman’s woman who doesn’t gush but also doesn’t wear a wonder woman’s costume. Lisa, in Poots’ hands, is relatable, especially to any woman who has been to the Region, and has encountered the hostility and repression there. But also the impalpable distrust, by both sides.
Bakri with Imogen Poots, in a still from the film
The ultimate brilliance of Nabulsi lies in her lightest, most simple details. Take her casting, in one little cameo, of art director Nael Kanj — he was production designer on Hany Abu-Assad’s Oscar-nominated Omar as well as Annemarie Jacir’s Wajib. This uncomplicated choice — he also serves as production designer on Nabulsi’s film — proves so perfectly, and quickly, a two-bladed knife. On the one hand, Kanj portrays the Israeli settler with chilling skill. We hate what he stands for, and what he does, adding to the film’s tragic fabric. On the other hand, he represents the absurdity of this conflict, in that he truly could equally be Palestinian or Israeli. He looks, whatever that means, both Israeli and Palestinian. But then again, these are the same people, most of them hailing from the same “promised” land, occupying each other’s space without a chance of either going away — no matter how hard Bibi Netanyahu tries to bomb one side into oblivion. Or push them off the edge of the world.
Perhaps, with a little respect, and a lot of compliance on the Israeli side with the Oslo Accords, this land currently reduced to a war of egos could become the paradise it is meant to be. Inshallah, during our lifetimes.
More notable brilliance in the film include the casting of Ruba Blal as the brothers’ mother. She is a superstar no matter what roles she inhabits, even one that is short in appearance. The music is by composer Alex Baranowski, who worked on the score for Basil Khalil’s A Gaza Weekend and Kibwe Tavares and Daniel Kaluuya's dystopian The Kitchen. The cinematography is by DoP and director Gilles Porte and editing is by Mike Pike. Ossama Bawardi, of Philistine Films, serves as producer along with Sawsan Asfari and Nabulsi.
The Teacher releases into UK cinemas on Friday, September 27th. To find a screening near you, check out the film’s website.