Film Review: The Present, directed by Farah Nabulsi
The 2020 film, The Present, directed by Farah Nabulsi, is a twenty-four minute long piece about the reality of struggle and domination for Palistineans living in Israel. The film's title is the first experience of the film that truly introduces you into this reality. The title has a dual meaning of the literal objective that the main character, Yusuf Khalidi, is trying to achieve by gifting a new refrigerator to his wife for their anniversary. The second meaning is the alternative definition of the word, present, being the current moment, as Nabulsi is clearly stating that the film’s content is simultaneously occurring to the viewer in real life. The film opens with Yusuf waking up from sleeping outside next to a wall on a piece of cardboard and checking his watch. He then is immediately in a caged tunnel with thousands of other people, and the chaos in this moment creates an uneasy atmosphere. There is a stark cut from the anxious and claustrophobic shot into Yusuf's room while he is peacefully laying in bed with a completely broken expression on his face. The melancholic confusion leaves his eyes and turns into blissful joy when his daughter, Yasmine, walks into the room saying, “Dad, come on, let's go!”, jumping into her fathers arms. Soon after Yusufs’ wife, Noor, comes in, and she says to him in a concerned tone, “How was yesterday? You got home so late. How is your back?” To which he responds completely nonchalantly, “Like always.” Noor has no response other than with her eyes, showing understanding for a struggle that is the reality of all three of their daily lives. The two words “like always” lasted in her mind, understanding that those two words mean that her husband just endured a terrible amount of injustice trying to lead a regular life. She then says “Happy anniversary!” The idea of living under oppression is a key theme throughout the film, Nabulsi provides an accurate depiction of trying to live life when the life you live is through the societal domination of a group of people because of the physical nature made up of the individual. Nabulsi demonstrates this reality through the seemingly impossible task of running an errand as a Palestinian that comes with not being recognized as a citizen where you live. In Palestine, there is everyday oppression based on who you are. In The Present, Nabulsi conveys a day in the life of Palestinians in Israel.
Yusuf leaves the bed and takes a pain killer before going to breakfast. Noor is slightly struggling with the refrigerator door and then she throws out expired milk when Yusuf walks in. She tells him to sit and eat, but he can not because he is in a rush to pick up a gift for Noor. He tells her he will be back in time for a “delicious dinner.” The film then follows Yusuf and Yasmine’s journey to go grocery shopping and pick up Yusuf's anniversary gift. Immediately after the two leave the kitchen, Noor closes the refrigerator door again exclaiming, “God damn thing” to the broken fridge with the screen cutting to black. Nabulsi then cuts to Yusuf and Yasmine waiting in a line that is surrounded by concrete and metal wires, reminiscent of a cage, to cross an Israeli checkpoint. Yusuf watches Yasmine observing an Israeli family drive through the checkpoint with ease. The road that they are driving on is not a possibility for Palisteinans to drive on. Yasmine is watching her own oppression while actively experiencing it. When the two finally get to the front of the line, one of the guards begins to give Yusuf a hard time, asking “Why are you here?” Yusuf responds, “I live here.” He then explains why he is leaving and reads off the list that Yasime made for him. After reading some items of the list to the officer, Yusuf is told to take off everything but his shirt and pants, and to go into the cage. He questions this and asks, “But why?” The Israeli army member states “Do as you are told.” Yusfus kindly asks that he not because his daughter is with him. The request is met with the officer raising his voice and pointing his machine gun at Yusuf. Yusuf then goes into the cage and they both wait for what seems like hours. While in the cage, Yusuf is pacing back and forth looking angry, humiliated, and confused. He was put in the cage on the basis of being Palestinian while simultaneously living in the Israeli state, a country where he is not recognized as a citizen. Through this example in the film, the viewer now is able to see why going out to run an errand can be an all day event.
The Israeli state enforces a form of everyday life oppression, aiming to make Palestinians feel unwelcome in the land they seek to retain for a fully Zionist state. In 1948, the Zionist movement declared the establishment of Israel, redefining Zionist militia groups as the Israeli army. This marked the beginning of a process to drive Palestinians out of their land. Around 750,000 Palestinians were forced to leave when Israel was declared, resulting in a map of Israel today, which closely resembles the borders from the 1967 ceasefire between Israel and the Arab nations. Although some Palestinian populations remain in cities like Haifa and Jaifa, the areas within the 48 borders have predominantly Jewish majorities. From 1948 to 1967, Palestinians were considered foreign nationals under martial law, devoid of Israeli citizenship. However, in 1967 their status changed to citizens; two million Palestinians who would have unequal freedom of movement and speech. Those Palestinians who left Israel are not recognized as citizens. This led to a situation where there are five million Israeli citizens, and another five million Palestinians who lack citizenship, voting rights, and require Israeli permission to leave. Consequently, since Israel's inception, the state governs over those deprived of citizenship, perpetuating systematic oppression. This history leads to the present moment that Nabulsi is illustrating to the viewer. A man can be in his home with his wife and child, living what appears to be regular life, and then the second he leaves his home, his reality immediately shifts to surviving in a state that is actively trying to ethnically cleanse your ethnicity. Nabulsi effectively shows human existence as suffering for Palestinians under Zionist rule.
Over the course of this class we learned about the impact of ruling through nationalism. Nabulsi effectively conveys this message by illustrating present day nationalism in an extremely heightened form. The film explores Israel's nationalistic tendencies to force the people of different nationalities that together comprise Israel to exist as if they are different species of animals, creating differences for the people who have distinct Israeliness and those who don't. The Israeli state was formed as a result of the damage that the Nazi’s inflicted on the European Jews. Nazi Facism was comprised of anti democratic, intensely racialized nationalists, who deployed considerable thuggerry in pursuit of state power in alliance with heavy state backing from financial corporations, thus leading to the pursuit of profit growth. These conditions created the Israeli state, which has specific and intensified forms of imperialist, nationalist, capitalist patriarchy against the Palestinians. The film presents this very complex and painful situation to the viewer. A quote by Bell Hooks from her book The Will to Change comes to mind with the issues that this movie is addressing. When providing her definition of patriarchy, Hooks states, “Patriarchy is a political-social system that insists that males are inherently dominating, superior to everything and everyone deemed weak, especially females, and endowed with the right to dominate and rule over the weak and to maintain that dominance through various forms of psychological terrorism and violence.” In the case of the Israeli state portrayed through Nabulsi’s, The Present, the Palestinians face “forms of psychological terrorism and violence” in everyday life.
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