A Jordanian movie that shows scenes of the Israeli soldiers killing a Palestinian family, during the events of the Palestinian Nakba in 1948, is available for streaming on Netflix platform, starting Thursday, December 1.
The movie Farha by Jordanian director Darin J Sallam, tells the story of a 14-year-old Palestinian girl who witnesses the Israeli occupation forces storming her village and executing civilians during the 1948 Nakba.
According to the film, Farha succeeds in persuading her father to allow her to complete her studies in the city, and then the village is bombed, so her father leaves after locking her in a family store for her safety, and promises that he will return for her.
Through a hole in the wall, she witnesses the events of the Nakba, also known as the Palestinian Nakba, that befall her village, and the destruction of the life she had dreamed of for herself.
Among the brutal scenes, the movie depicts Israeli soldiers coldly executing a family of Palestinian refugees, leaving behind an orphan child to die.
The movie was shown in a number of prestigious festivals around the world and won Arab and international awards, including the prestigious Toronto Film Festival, where it premieres in 2021.
Speaking at a different festival, the director said that when she was a child, she heard this story about a Palestinian girl who was locked in a room by her father to protect her life and “family honor”.
Sallam said the girl survived and moved to Syria, where she shared her story with a Syrian girl. Then the Syrian girl grew up, got married, and shared the story with her daughter, Sallam herself.
Salam said she also made the movie because while many films are made about Palestinians, she felt there was nothing about the root cause of what is happening today, which is the events of 1948.
The term “Nakba” refers to the process of expelling Palestinians from their lands by “armed Zionist gangs” in 1948.
About 800,000 Palestinians were forced to leave their homes in that year. They witnessed the establishment of what became known as Israel and fled to escape “massacres committed by Zionist gangs, with the support of the British occupation.”
The outgoing Israeli government’s Minister of Finance, Avigdor Lieberman, condemned the decision of the Netflix platform to show a Jordanian movie about the Nakba.
Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman said in a statement posted on Twitter, “It is insane that Netflix broadcasts a film whose aim is to create a false pretext and incite hatred of Israeli soldiers.”
The outgoing minister added: “We will not allow the reputation of the Israeli army soldiers to be tarnished,” adding: “I directed the professional leadership in the Ministry of Finance to take measures to withdraw the budget from the Saraya Theater in Jaffa (center), which chose to show the Jordanian movie tonight.”
Lieberman described the film as “inciting, full of lies against IDF soldiers.”
And he added, “Israel is a place to present Israeli and international works of art, but it is certainly not a place to discredit the Israeli army soldiers and security forces who work day and night to protect all citizens and residents.”
