The Teacher (12A)
Directed by Farah Nabulsi

 
INSPIRED by true events, Farah Nabulsi’s impressive directorial debut feature takes you on a powerful and emotional journey into the lives and experiences of Palestinians living under colonisation and Israeli military occupation. 

The film, written and directed by the Palestinian/British film-maker, follows Palestinian schoolteacher Basem (Saleh Bakri) who struggles to accommodate his commitment to political resistance with his attempts to befriend and provide emotional support to a student Adam (Muhammad Abed El Rahman) as well as deal with a blossoming romance with an English volunteer school worker (Imogen Poots). 

Filmed in the West Bank, it is a slow-burning drama which explores the injustices, and the lack of recourse, faced by Palestinians. When Adam watches his brother Yacoub (Mahmoud Bakri who is Saleh’s youngest brother) being shot dead by an Israeli settler who had been setting fire to their olive trees, he is gripped by hatred and the desire for revenge, and even more so when the killer gets off scot-free.

Basem takes Adam under his wing and suggests he stays with him instead of in his uncle’s overcrowded home where he, his mother and his brother were forced to flee when their village house was demolished by the military for no apparent reason.

It is the father-son dynamic that holds this drama together as it examines what a parent is prepared to do for their child, to cope with their loss or to get them back. There is a terribly moving scene when a Jewish-American father whose son has been held captive for three years begs Basem, father to father, to tell him where he is.

Basem, who harboured him for a short while, pleads ignorance. The plan is to exchange his life for those of over 1,000 Palestinian political prisoners including over 200 women and children.  

Bakri and Rahman give stunning performances and are totally believable in their father/son-esque relationship. Poots is equally good as the romantic interest and the outsider spectating in shock and horror. 

As the drama unfolds you learn why Basem is a loner and joined the resistance. It revolves around his 16-year-old son being arrested and jailed for eight years for attending an anti-Israeli demonstration. This explains why he pulls out all the stops to save Adam from ruining his life. 

It is a heartbreaking and thought-provoking film about sacrifice and futility which will haunt you for days. 

In cinemas September 27.