(Image
from the poster)
This excellent Palestinian movie was
awarded the Best Feature Film prize at the 2018 Durban Film Festival and may
return on the commercial circuit. (Review by Patrick Compton)
Clearly there is no such thing as ordinary
marital infidelity in Israel, at least when the partners are an Israeli woman
and a Palestinian man.
Sarah and Saleem, to put it bluntly, have
the hots for each other, no more, no less. She is a café owner and the wife of
an Israeli army colonel who lives in west Jerusalem. He is a Palestinian who
lives in the eastern section. He’s short of money and is anxious about how he
will support his wife and forthcoming child. Neither of them is “political”.
The couple are initially fairly careful
about their liaison, sneaking time together to make love in his bakery van. One
evening, however, Saleem says he has to make a delivery in Bethlehem. She is on
the point of calling off the appointment, but, loath to miss out on a passion
session, decides to accompany him.
At this stage, the movie – the feature film
debut of Muayad Alayan and written by his brother Rami – takes on political and
feminist dimensions in an almost thriller format that holds its audience
intrigued and tense as events build to a climax.
The
Reports on Sarah and Saleem is essentially a film
about power, concerning those who have it (the Israelis) and those who don’t
(the Palestinians). Thankfully, the movie is not as simplistic as this sounds
with the Alayan brothers eschewing didacticism and creating a convincingly
nuanced portrait of life in one of the most highly contested and complex
countries in the world.
Although the movie is 127 minutes long, the
film’s pacing is impeccable and it doesn’t overstay its welcome. It’s hard to
know whether the film will return to Durban on the commercial circuit, but
there are grounds for hoping it will, principally because it’s a well-acted,
tautly delivered human drama that should appeal to a wider audience. - Patrick
Compton
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