‘Palestinian art is a remarkable victory against those trying to erase us’
Palestinians watch a film screened on the Israeli Separation Wall as part of a festival, Aida refugee camp, 29 August 2008
Rami Younis writes in +972:
It’s no mean feat for an Arab film director to work in the entertainment capital of the world, let alone make films about Palestine. But Hany Abu-Assad, 59, has done just that. Born in Nazareth and based in the Netherlands, he has under his belt 11 films and has worked with some of Hollywood’s top stars, including Idris Elba, Kate Winslet, and Mickey Rourke. Two of his most famous productions — 2005’s “Paradise Now“ and 2013’s “Omar” — received Oscar nominations for best foreign film, representing Palestine in one of the most widely-watched events of the year.
That impressive record, though, has not made Abu-Assad’s work any easier. Among supposedly progressive circles in Hollywood, many producers and studios who would otherwise support a range of political films are still “afraid to address anything involving Palestinians,” he told me during an interview a few months ago. Even if American producers did not have pro-Israel affinities or hold racist views of Arabs, they would not regard Palestinian films as financially profitable ventures, and were therefore uninterested in investing in such films, he said.
Yet in the face of that stifling environment, Abu-Assad believes that Palestinians should take stock of their tremendous cultural achievements. “Where else can you find such accomplished art and artists who have had war waged against them for 70 years? It’s a unique story,” he said.
Abu-Assad’s words offer some solace and energy for Palestinian artists like myself. When I spoke with him last October, my plan was to mark 20 years since the start of the Second Intifada by speaking to an artist who had inspired me to enter the world of cinema and to get involved with cultural and artistic activism. But between COVID-19, Israel’s normalization agreements with Arab regimes, and personal struggles with settling back in Israel-Palestine from the United States, I felt as if there was no point in publishing the interview; the cultural activist in me had given up.
The Palestinian uprising in May changed all that.