The Present

My favourite thing about films like this is that you get to see other things in the world that you wouldn't normally experience, for better or for worse.

I don't really know much about the subject but after watching this I researched a little bit about it and I'm still not 100% sure what the point in these checkpoints are but I did read that workers have to stand and wait at them from 3am to go to work. That is crazy.

This film shows that struggle by forming it as a simple shopping trip that takes the whole day, from early in the morning and having them return when it's dark. It's shows the cruelty of people and that people with power will try and use that against people with none.

The Lead actor was fantastic and you could see the rage and pain in his eyes.

I watched this film via a film festival and got to hear from the director that the opening scene of humans walking through an Israeli checkpoint were live and real. My God! Seeing these forbidden scenes that mainstream media won't show alone is a reason to watch this film. The beautiful superb acting and simple story being the point home beautifully. We need more from Palestinian film makers bearing witness to the plight of the plight of Palestinians in this humane way.

Our most fundamental assumptions about the humiliations and threat of violence that Palestinians in the West Bank suffer in their daily lives, go beyond what is already proved true in this beautifully filmed and acted, simple story of an anniversary celebration. A man and his young daughter cross the border to buy his wife a present. There are no gun shots. No one dies but the future of this small family are all to easy to imagine and that's where the power of this sensitively told tale lies.

This film was so moving. The part I loved the most was how human the situation was. As you watch it, you feel the frustration of what its like to go through the day with that kind of adversity. When that adversity looks like abuse of power its especially difficult to digest. The young lady is so pure and a delightful soul. The thing that left me was that it only shows the story from the lens of "in the day of". It leaves you with the question, that what would be the consequence of making independent decisions. That anxiety hits you hard especially if you have experienced oppressive situations like this before. For many that have empathy or a history of systems like this, this movie definitely leaves a mark.

I don't know about the original Arabic title, but the English translation of this Academy Award nominated short, "The Present," has a neat double meaning, as it refers to both the wedding anniversary gift of a refrigerator and to the current state of affairs of the apartheid system of occupation and border control of the West Bank. None of the ethnic, historical, political or religious underpinnings are explored here, thankfully; it's just a simple tale of a man and his daughter going twice through a checkpoint to go shopping and return home and the indignities and pain suffered there from.

Indeed, the supposed Israeli guards aren't depicted flatteringly at all, but it is rather the opposite of what one sees in most movies that reach the West and are located somewhere in the Middle East, where Arabic and Palestinian characters are often played by Israeli actors instead of, as here, reportedly, the other way around. And, I look forward to seeing "White Eye," the Israeli nominee for the same award.