When I Saw You

Eleven-year-old Tarek grows restless at Harir camp in Jordan, as the days go by with no sign of return and no sign of his father. A conversation with an old woman, who tells him she's been waiting to return for 20 years, pushes him to take his destiny into his own hands and find his way back home, following his father's directions.

With that in mind, this curious free spirit sets off on a journey on his own, eventually finding himself in the midst of an army. An army of freedom fighters, training under the command of Abu Akram, in the hopes of one day getting their land back.

Annemarie Jacir breaks all boundaries with her second feature-length film, When I Saw You. The award-winning director brings us a story set in Jordan in 1967 about a mother and her child, who have fled across the border from Palestine to find refuge at a camp. Jacir brings together a unique set of characters, each with their individual eccentricities, quirks and traits to form what must be one of the best cast ensembles in a film of this magnitude.

I felt such happiness watching this film. Watching this young child on the screen, with his big, beautiful eyes, full of question and wonder, made me hope for more, made me want more. He did not take "no" for an answer, and he did not give up. He made me nostalgic for our days of innocence and optimism, when we thought anything was possible. When we still held on to our beliefs and values, when faith was strong within us, when we thought we could change the world if only we tried. When we still believed that good exists in the world. That, to me, is what Tarek represented in this film. Purity, innocence, but most of all… hope.

I loved him so much, I remember sitting there in the dark theatre and leaning sideways to whisper to my friend, "I am going to name my son Tarek one day, and he will be as brilliant as this kid." To tell the story of Palestine from the perspective of a child is the most unique and creative twist I've experienced in years. The effect is akin to The Book Thief or The Boy with the Striped Pyjamas, where a story as old as time is being seen through the lens of a child. This is a film with an 11-year-old as its protagonist – and who knew that an eleven-year-old had such a sarcastic and unique sense of humour? Clever, charismatic, witty, funny and quirky, with an odd gift with numbers, he is the perfect combination.

The rest of the characters are just as memorable, with Tarek's mother, Ghaydaa, being the epitome of strength and resilience, standing by her son, until the very last moment. Layth, attractive and a flirt, takes Tarek under his wing. Then there is Abu Akram, the leader of the group, training them hard and sharing his wisdom in the form of famous quotes.

Jacir has made outstanding choices with this film. The combination of characters, music, scene selection and storyline makes this film very memorable. One you will be talking about long after you've watched it, especially given its open-ended finish, in which we are left with a choice: should we hope for the best, or expect the worst?

Sad reality of freedom fighters. Sad reality of the lives the mothers, children, and elders had to live through. Strong movie with a motive. Personally loved it. May they be free soon...

The film is a stylish, well-acted piece of agitprop, with fine cinematography and pretty good production values overall, and with a core plot line that is deeply touching, reflecting reality as it must have been lived by millions in the times (just after the 67 war) in which it is set. Until the final sequence, which is more than over the top and breaks with the fairly rigorous realism of the rest, it avoids a lot of the overemphatic character drawing and acting that afflicts so much Arab filmmaking.

There have been Palestinian films of yet greater subtlety, but the filmmaker is to be commended for leaving the Israelis offscreen (save for some ghostly Land Rovers out on patrol). The story line starts with the intimate, day-to-day realities of life in the refugee camps, made to appear pretty much like life anywhere at first and then, progressively and with commendable restraint, shown to be unbearable. Tarek, the small boy at the center of the film, apparently both dyslexic and mathematically gifted, is perhaps just a little too adorable, but the young actor is well-directed and mostly believable in his childish obsession with returning home and finding his father, oblivious to danger or to the reality involved in getting there. His mother is superbly acted, showing devotion to her son, but a wide range of other human feelings, including fed-upness, as well, all done with great understatement.

For many, there will be some wistful nostalgia (and for others, perhaps, snorts of derision) at the depiction of a then-embryonic Palestinian resistance in which young men and women mix freely as comrades, and in which the only Book in use is the little red one of Chairman Mao. Not a hint of piety in the whole film, not even a call to prayer in the distance. Different times.