Palestine '36

CRITIC'S PICK: Palestine '36, The Tara Atlanta — Palestinian writer and director
Annemarie Jacir’s Palestine '36 continues screening at The Tara, being held over through Thursday, April 16. And rightly so!

A vivid and aggressive account of Palestine during the
British Mandate period in the late ‘30s — when Palestinians were rising up
against British rule and Jews were arriving from Europe to avoid
persecution and to colonize the land — Palestine '36 offers an enlightened
account of what transpired as the British attempted to make good the Balfour
Declaration while the Palestinian people rejected not only British rule, but the subsequent
division of their homeland to the Zionists. The British sowed the seeds of
discontent that play out in the headlines of today; Jacir’s film presents an
historical indictment of their actions while providing a foundation of
understanding for what has come, from the Palestinian al Nakba in
1947, to the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, through the various Arab-
Israeli wars up to the Palestinian intifada of the late ‘80s and ‘90s, to the
ongoing Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip that is now starting
to take place in the West Bank.

Alternating between newly-colorized original black and white newsreel
footage — presented in a square box format — and the widescreen
presentation of Jacir’s work, the film is awash in colors that keep the viewer
reminded of a time past, following Yusuf, who must decide between the
city life Jerusalem offers and joining the rebellion to protect the land his
family farms in Al Bassa village. Yusuf’s chooses the steadfastness his parents display, making the right decision in his journey. It is but one of many stories carried throughout the
two-hour presentation. Another is that of the journalist Khuloud Atef, who
must publish her stories under a male pseudonym, Ahmad Canaani, in
order for them to be taken seriously, and Thomas Hopkins, the British
attache who attempts to work with the Palestinians, but, like them — and
Khuloud Atef — is betrayed. Ultimately, isn’t the history of Israel/Palestine,
the goal of colonialism and imperialism, and the partition and transfer of the
land and people of Palestine nothing if not one of betrayal? — Tony Paris