Palestinian-British filmmaker Farah Nabulsi is trying not to dream about the Oscars.
Her directorial debut short production, The Present, has had a great start. It won the audience award at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in February, where it had its world premiere. It then went on to win the best live-action short film award at the Cleveland International Film Festival last week. This is an Academy-qualifying festival, which means she is truly in the race for an Oscar.
“It’s nuts,” she tells The National about how she feels of the past few months.
It's one thing to have the facts and the figures and the reports and the maps... but unless you speak to people's hearts, you can't access their minds
How seeing occupation in real life changed her
Nabulsi’s recent success is all the more notable given that she never studied film making or went to film school. Born and raised in London, she made trips to Palestine with her parents as a child, But the family stopped going after the First Intifada broke out in 1987.
In 2014, more than 25 years later, Nabulsi made her first trip to her homeland as an adult.
“It was life-changing for me completely,” Nabulsi says of the trip. “I assumed I understood what was happening from the books I was reading, the films I have seen, but there is really no substitute to going and seeing what is happening on the ground.”
Nabulsi was affected by witnessing the occupation in real life.
“Whether it’s the wall ploughing through villages, the refugee camps, the separate road system, the checkpoints, the settlements... It really hit me and that is when I started writing therapeutically.”
Back then, Nabulsi was not yet a filmmaker, but she wrote as a way to channel her experience into something creative.
“I was struggling with what I could do to make a difference,” she says. “I kind of concluded that what is really missing from the whole Palestine narrative is empathy, enough empathy. It’s one thing to have the facts and the figures and the reports and the maps ... but unless you speak to people’s hearts, you cannot access their minds.”
Those pieces of writing from her trip to Palestine became the seeds for Nabulsi’s first films. She turned them into short portrait films, which although she did not direct, she wrote and produced.
The decision to turn them into experimental poetic pieces of short film was because she felt strongly about the medium being the most far-reaching form of art. “I wanted it to be able to cross borders and speak to the West, to understand and feel the Palestinians and the Palestinian situation.”
Challenges of filming in Palestine
Nabulsi's The Present tells the story of Yousef, played by Palestinian actor Saleh Bakri, who decides to go with his daughter to buy a gift for his wife on their wedding anniversary. The task of shopping for the gift is almost impossible due to the challenges of life under occupation.
For Nabulsi, the film is simply about freedom of movement as a basic human right.
“At its essence, the film is about human dignity and the importance of dignity and what it means for someone to continuously be dehumanised,” she says. “It’s a simple story that speaks volumes about the absurd situation that exists there [in Palestine].”
The film, co-written by Palestinian filmmaker and poet Hind Shoufani, was shot over six days in Palestine. They even filmed at the infamous Checkpoint 300 in Bethlehem. The checkpoint is where thousands of Palestinian workers queue from as early as 3am to cross into Israel for work.
For Nabulsi, that was the hardest part.
“Making a film is exhausting and not easy, especially when it is live action,” she says, speaking of deadlines and shot lists. “Then you have that extra cloud of doing it in occupied Palestine.”
Where will the film go next?
But as we talk about the subject of freedom of movement, the conversation brings us to the world’s reality today.
Of course, for reasons far from occupation, the coronavirus pandemic has left much of the globe facing restricted movement and fear of the future.
As a filmmaker, Nabulsi has her own concerns, too.
While The Present's second festival participation was a virtual one, she worries about what the postponement of festivals around the world will mean for films such as hers that were only about to start travelling for a year of festivals.
“The ultimate reward is for people to see the film,” she says. “I want as many people to watch the film and to contemplate the human dynamics required to cope with such cruel and perverse circumstances, even after they go home, and to feel and wonder what life means for people like Yousef our protagonist.”
However, as Nabulsi waits to see what the fate of her short film will be, she is wasting no time creatively: the filmmaker is working on her next project, which will be her first feature-length endeavour.
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
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Torque: 1075Nm
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Origin
Dan Brown
Doubleday
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
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Mobile phone packages comparison
Types of bank fraud
1) Phishing
Fraudsters send an unsolicited email that appears to be from a financial institution or online retailer. The hoax email requests that you provide sensitive information, often by clicking on to a link leading to a fake website.
2) Smishing
The SMS equivalent of phishing. Fraudsters falsify the telephone number through “text spoofing,” so that it appears to be a genuine text from the bank.
3) Vishing
The telephone equivalent of phishing and smishing. Fraudsters may pose as bank staff, police or government officials. They may persuade the consumer to transfer money or divulge personal information.
4) SIM swap
Fraudsters duplicate the SIM of your mobile number without your knowledge or authorisation, allowing them to conduct financial transactions with your bank.
5) Identity theft
Someone illegally obtains your confidential information, through various ways, such as theft of your wallet, bank and utility bill statements, computer intrusion and social networks.
6) Prize scams
Fraudsters claiming to be authorised representatives from well-known organisations (such as Etisalat, du, Dubai Shopping Festival, Expo2020, Lulu Hypermarket etc) contact victims to tell them they have won a cash prize and request them to share confidential banking details to transfer the prize money.
EPL's youngest
- Ethan Nwaneri (Arsenal)
15 years, 181 days old
- Max Dowman (Arsenal)
15 years, 235 days old
- Jeremy Monga (Leicester)
15 years, 271 days old
- Harvey Elliott (Fulham)
16 years, 30 days old
- Matthew Briggs (Fulham)
16 years, 68 days old
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THE BIO
Born: Mukalla, Yemen, 1979
Education: UAE University, Al Ain
Family: Married with two daughters: Asayel, 7, and Sara, 6
Favourite piece of music: Horse Dance by Naseer Shamma
Favourite book: Science and geology
Favourite place to travel to: Washington DC
Best advice you’ve ever been given: If you have a dream, you have to believe it, then you will see it.
How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
The specs: Lamborghini Aventador SVJ
Price, base: Dh1,731,672
Engine: 6.5-litre V12
Gearbox: Seven-speed automatic
Power: 770hp @ 8,500rpm
Torque: 720Nm @ 6,750rpm
Fuel economy: 19.6L / 100km
Profile
Company: Justmop.com
Date started: December 2015
Founders: Kerem Kuyucu and Cagatay Ozcan
Sector: Technology and home services
Based: Jumeirah Lake Towers, Dubai
Size: 55 employees and 100,000 cleaning requests a month
Funding: The company’s investors include Collective Spark, Faith Capital Holding, Oak Capital, VentureFriends, and 500 Startups.
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MATCH INFO
Wales 1 (Bale 45 3')
Croatia 1 (Vlasic 09')
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Cricket World Cup League 2 Fixtures
Saturday March 5, UAE v Oman, ICC Academy (all matches start at 9.30am)
Sunday March 6, Oman v Namibia, ICC Academy
Tuesday March 8, UAE v Namibia, ICC Academy
Wednesday March 9, UAE v Oman, ICC Academy
Friday March 11, Oman v Namibia, Sharjah Cricket Stadium
Saturday March 12, UAE v Namibia, Sharjah Cricket Stadium
UAE squad
Ahmed Raza (captain), Chirag Suri, Muhammad Waseem, CP Rizwan, Vriitya Aravind, Asif Khan, Basil Hameed, Rohan Mustafa, Kashif Daud, Zahoor Khan, Junaid Siddique, Karthik Meiyappan, Akif Raja, Rahul Bhatia
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AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
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Publisher: Konami
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Rating: 4.5/5
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Other workplace saving schemes
- The UAE government announced a retirement savings plan for private and free zone sector employees in 2023.
- Dubai’s savings retirement scheme for foreign employees working in the emirate’s government and public sector came into effect in 2022.
- National Bonds unveiled a Golden Pension Scheme in 2022 to help private-sector foreign employees with their financial planning.
- In April 2021, Hayah Insurance unveiled a workplace savings plan to help UAE employees save for their retirement.
- Lunate, an Abu Dhabi-based investment manager, has launched a fund that will allow UAE private companies to offer employees investment returns on end-of-service benefits.
