WHERE THE STRUGGLE BEGINS

Palestine 36 is one of the most talked-about films at the Tokyo International Film Festival

- STORY: KONG RITHDEE

Annemarie Jacir's Palestine 36 reminds us that the question of Palestine didn’t begin two years ago but generations before that. Showing at the Tokyo International Film Festival, the film is set in the aftermath of World War I as the European powers carve up the Middle East like a spoiled child slicing his birthday cake: gleefully, arbitrarily, jabbing their fingers on a map with no regard of history or the need of local inhabitants.

The year is 1936. Palestine is ruled by the British. Jewish immigrants from Europe have arrived and set up colonies behind barbed-wire fences guarded by colonial soldiers. Weaving fictional episodes into a real historical setup, Jacir’s film revolves around several Palestinian characters caught in the critical moment where the eviction, oppression and massacres begin — and which gives rise to the resistance that endures until today.

We follow a young man who joins the band of fighters, a peasant family whose land is being seized, a Christian priest trapped in the crossfire and an aristocratic journalist who witnesses the unfolding nightmare.

Central to Jacir’s narrative is the Arab Revolt of 1936, the first uprising against the colonial ruler and the general strike of workers in Palestine. Both are crucial historical events that have rarely been told in films, especially from a non-European, non-Hollywood perspective.

Representing Palestine at the Oscars — where last year another West Bank-set film, No Other Land, won Best Documentary — Palestine 36 stars a cast of Arab actors including Hiam Abbass Saleh Bakri and Yasmine Al Massri. It also stars Jeremy Irons and Liam Cunningham as British generals lording over the local population (in the real world, both actors have been vocal about Palestinian rights).