Watched at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival.
Just got out from TIFF screening, I haven't seen an audience this loud and it's probably one of the biggest applause and reaction I have seen in some time. Its definitely an expereince.
While it isn't Annemarie Jacir best work, it still remains powerful, emotional and engaging about the story of the historical conflicts between Palestine and the British, which parallels a lot of the themes with Palestine that is facing today. Throughout, Jacir's direction on the atmosphere, writing, and setting is pretty good and interesting. Using archival footage and interesting editing choices, it offers an unique observation and examination about the past and present of Palestine, which offers the viewers to under the contexts and parallels between of what has happened and the issues people from Palestine has faced. I really love the docdrama approach and it feels appropriate and the best way to approach the subject.
Alongside with great production designs, camerawork and sound designs, the writing, while admittedly, it does have some cheesy and cliched moments when it came to tone approaches and concepts, it still is effective. As the writing offers some good discussions, characters and tense sequences within the setting. Same with the performances, as all of the performances are good.
The characters are pretty interesting as they were explored pretty thought-provokingly and in-depth. Alongside with some good dialogue, although some of the dialogue felt a bit strange.
As a whole, I do admire Jacir and all of the Palestinian filmmakers and crew out there making projects and stories about their struggles, knowing very well how dangerous things are happening in our current times. Overall, despite its flaws, the well intended purpose and atmosphere succeeds and it creates a harrowing and emotional experience.
