When I Saw You (Lamma Shoftak)

Palestine/ Jordan/ Greece 2012

Director: Annemarie Jacir

            A film centred around Palestinian refugees living in the wake of conflict, made by a Palestinian filmmaker, is bound to be heavily political, one would assume. But whilst Annemarie Jacir’s When I Saw You may be set against the backdrop of the 1967 refugee crisis brought about by the Arab-Israeli Six-Day War, the world that the refugees inhabit is not one which is directly contextualised within the film diegesis. Instead, Jacir cleverly refrains from making the film all about politics, and chooses to paint a more intimate portrait of life as a refugee by presenting her story through the eyes of a child, eleven-year-old protagonist Tarek. Having been separated from his father amidst the chaos of war, Tarek and his mother Ghaydaa are amongst the latest wave of Palestinians who arrive at the Harir refugee camp in Jordan. ‘Home’ is such a simple word, yet it is one that is loaded with meaning for Tarek, forced into exile but too young to understand why. “Where’s our house? Which direction did we come from?” he asks his mother. Dissatisfied with his grey, bleak and claustrophobic surroundings, and determined to find his father and his way back to his romanticised version of home (which notably by this point ceases to exist in its original state), Tarek, in his innocence, takes his mother at her word that home is in “the direction of the sun” and follows it, leaving his mother behind (although she eventually follows). Soon enough, Tarek winds up at a fedayee camp, where a group of anti-Israeli fighters-in-training take him under their wing. Whilst he enters a very adult world, they share his sense of displacement and, more significantly, his natural impulse to fight against their circumstances. It is through his endearing interactions with them that he is essentially able to come-of-age.

            In When I Saw You, as in Jacir’s critically acclaimed first feature Salt of this Sea (2008), the themes of return and homecoming are prominent. Not only do the characters directly voice their longing “to return” to Palestine, but the lingering shots of the landscape that punctuate the film also serve as poetic reminders of what they are fighting to reclaim. It is perhaps unsurprising that the film is visually imbued with a poetic lyricism considering Jacir’s work as a poet; from the long takes and close-ups on Tarek and Ghaydaa, to the memorable scene which shows the group gathering around the camp-fire as one fighter sings a mournful but richly meaningful song whilst the panning camera catches their thoughtful fire-lit faces, Jacir’s visual treatment of her characters effectively works to convey their inner emotions. All the while, what the audience is brought to witness is from the perspective of Tarek, and the low camera angles remind us that we are at his level, and that whilst Jacir’s story is about a reality, it is an inevitably distorted and confused reality as one that is seen through a child’s eyes.

            First time actor Mahmoud Afsa gives a compelling stand-out performance as young Tarek, alongside more established actor Ruba Blal as his mother and a predominantly Palestinian cast. Whilst When I Saw You might be quiet and reserved in its confrontation with political issues, it nonetheless speaks volumes about the power that the disenfranchised can have in building community in the face of extreme adversity.

            Jacir’s emotional investment in her characters and their relationships would appear to arise out of her personal connection to the story that she is telling. Born in Palestine, Jacir then moved to Saudi Arabia and whilst she was able to return to her hometown of Bethlehem, she is interested in portraying the side of the Palestinian refugees who were not so lucky. From her award-wining shorts and first feature film to her latest cinematic offering, Jacir displays a continued interest in telling stories at a micro, personal level, and does so with a commitment that gives credence to her standing as the most prominent female Palestinian filmmaker around today.

© Pippa Selby, 2014