Leila Sansour left Bethlehem as a teenager in the 1980s in search of a more exciting life and education in Europe, much to her father’s dismay. Little did she know then that she would return two decades later to make a film that depicts the daily difficulties of living in a city that has been under such an intricate and long-standing occupation.
Through Open Bethlehem, the Russian-born, Palestinian-raised filmmaker wanted to show the world what it's like to live beside the invasive annexation wall, which started being constructed in 2000 as a "separation barrier" – using suicide bombings inside Israeli territory during the second Palestinian intifada as a pretext. The film is a tribute to Sansour's late father, the much-respected founder of Bethlehem University.
Sansour, who planned to stay only until she could film the construction of the wall, soon became involved in a full-fledged campaign for the city she had once been so desperate to leave. What was supposed to be a one-year project in 2004 extended to almost a decade, resulting in more than 700 hours of footage.
The film – which will be screened for the first time in the UAE tomorrow through Reel Palestine, a local pop-up film festival aimed at revealing Palestinian life and culture – is a first-person account that revolves around Sansour, as the Christian-Palestinian becomes reacquainted with her native city.
In the film, Sansour is armed only with her camera and a dilapidated family car that keeps breaking down as she makes her way around the city, which she says is reflective of the Palestinian struggle to get by with very little.
“The film mirrors the struggle of people who are walking in the shoes of the weak,” she says. “There is a lot that is demanded of you as a Palestinian. You are expected to go to great lengths to get the most mundane chores done, while being diplomatically savvy and politically correct.
“The car is symbolic of how difficult it is to do that when you are denied basic rights and resources.”
Sansour says she faced many obstacles when filming raw footage of houses being demolished to make way for the wall.
“It was very difficult to film at many of the scenes of destruction,” she says. “If someone from the army sees you, you automatically have your tapes confiscated, so much of the film was snippets of what we could salvage. I once had an entire night’s worth of footage taken from me.”
During her time there, Sansour also launched the Open Bethlehem foundation, a non-governmental body that aims to promote and protect the heritage of the ancient city. "The purpose of the film gradually shifted to become an all-encompassing campaign that sheds light on the situation from every possible angle," says Sansour, who also produced the acclaimed film Jeremy Hardy vs the Israeli Army in 2003. "I felt I couldn't just make a film and walk away.
“Essentially, this is a story of collective incarceration and imprisonment. The film brings the cultural and historic roots of the old city to the fore, disqualifying myths that this was ever a barren land. On the contrary, Bethlehem is a model of coexistence in the Middle East. This is something to cherish.”
The 90-minute film was released in the United Kingdom last month and has attracted more than 25,000 viewers so far, according to Sansour, who is planning to take the film to America by the end of this year.
“It is also a very personal story, which is why it resonated with many viewers,” she says. “The film touches upon the gradual exodus of my family and many others who left Bethlehem as a direct result of the situation on the ground and not because of some inter-religious or social incongruence.”
Sansour hopes that the film will garner an international reaction strong enough to make a difference in bettering the lives of ordinary Palestinians and ending the occupation.
“We have to remind the world that we are very much there and are there to stay,” she says.
Open Bethlehem will be screened in Dubai’s Alserkal Avenue on Sunday, January 25, at 7pm. Tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Visit www.reelpalestine.org
salsayed@thenational.ae
Tom Fletcher on 'soft power'
Our legal advisor
Ahmad El Sayed is Senior Associate at Charles Russell Speechlys, a law firm headquartered in London with offices in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Hong Kong.
Experience: Commercial litigator who has assisted clients with overseas judgments before UAE courts. His specialties are cases related to banking, real estate, shareholder disputes, company liquidations and criminal matters as well as employment related litigation.
Education: Sagesse University, Beirut, Lebanon, in 2005.
Hamilton’s 2017
Australia - 2nd; China - 1st; Bahrain - 2nd; Russia - 4th; Spain - 1st; Monaco - 7th; Canada - 1st; Azerbaijan - 5th; Austria - 4th; Britain - 1st; Hungary - 4th; Belgium - 1st; Italy - 1st; Singapore - 1st; Malaysia - 2nd; Japan - 1st; United States - 1st; Mexico - 9th
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
The Buckingham Murders
Starring: Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ash Tandon, Prabhleen Sandhu
Director: Hansal Mehta
Rating: 4 / 5
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Match info
Manchester United 0-0 Crystal Palace
Man of the match: Cheikhou Kouyate (Crystal Palace)
MATCH INFO
Watford 1 (Deulofeu 80' p)
Chelsea 2 (Abraham 5', Pulisic 55')
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
- Look beyond school fees
- Keep an open mind
Abdul Jabar Qahraman was meeting supporters in his campaign office in the southern Afghan province of Helmand when a bomb hidden under a sofa exploded on Wednesday.
The blast in the provincial capital Lashkar Gah killed the Afghan election candidate and at least another three people, Interior Minister Wais Ahmad Barmak told reporters. Another three were wounded, while three suspects were detained, he said.
The Taliban – which controls much of Helmand and has vowed to disrupt the October 20 parliamentary elections – claimed responsibility for the attack.
Mr Qahraman was at least the 10th candidate killed so far during the campaign season, and the second from Lashkar Gah this month. Another candidate, Saleh Mohammad Asikzai, was among eight people killed in a suicide attack last week. Most of the slain candidates were murdered in targeted assassinations, including Avtar Singh Khalsa, the first Afghan Sikh to run for the lower house of the parliament.
The same week the Taliban warned candidates to withdraw from the elections. On Wednesday the group issued fresh warnings, calling on educational workers to stop schools from being used as polling centres.
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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