Ukraine in Arabic | Villa Touma: the world’s first stateless film
KYIV/Ukraine in Arabic/ The 45-year-old filmmaker from the town of Maaliya in the Galilee region of present-day Israel has screenwriting credit for the critically acclaimed feature-length films Lemon Tree (2008) and The Syrian Bride (2004), and directed the documentary Women of Hamas (2008).
Her new feature film, Villa Touma, set in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, depicts an aristocratic Christian demographic in Palestinian society. In the film, three unmarried women, largely secluded from society, seek personal redemption by marrying their orphaned niece to an “acceptable” Christian suitor.
“The first thing I want you to know is that my story with Israel is finished,” Suha Arraf, the Palestinian filmmaker from Haifa told.
Arraf is referring to the controversy over her latest film, “Villa Touma.” Though the film was financed in part with funds from the Israeli Film Fund and the majority of filming took place in Haifa, the writer-director chose to list her work as Palestinian in international film festivals.
The move prompted Israeli Economy Minister and head of the right-wing, pro-settler Jewish Home party Naftali Bennett to call her actions “unacceptable and unfair.” Israeli Minister of Culture and Sport, Limor Livnat, said that Arraf acted in a “cynical” manner.
“We are citizens [of Israel] on paper, but the paper doesn’t say anything about our identity, which comes through culture and language,” she continued.
As the main creative force behind “Villa Touma,” Arraf maintains that she has the right to define her film, which is almost entirely in Arabic, set in Ramallah, the administrative capital of the occupied West Bank, and features no Jewish-Israelis.
Villa Touma has recently screened at international film festivals across Europe and North America. In general, it has been warmly received. Yet, during the Venice Film Festival in July, Arraf’s latest work elicited attacks from Israelis after the filmmaker listed it as having been produced in Palestine.
Along with other government institutions, Israel’s culture ministry subsequently announced that it may demand Arraf return up to $580,000 in public funds she had accepted for the film’s production.
Salah Mohsen, a spokesperson for the Haifa-based Adalah Legal Center, which promotes the rights of Palestinians in Israel, argued that Arraf’s attackers use double standards for Palestinians.
“It is very common for Israeli films to receive European funding, but no one demands that they be classified as European films,” he told The Electronic Intifada. “Films belong to the producers, not the funders. There is absolutely no legal basis for asking her to return the money because Suha followed the stipulations of the contract exactly.”
Arraf was contractually obligated to place official logos of the public institutions that provided funding on the film fliers.
In the end, Arraf decided to remove the Palestine classification from the film. Yet, rather than give in to the demands that it be labeled an Israeli production, she changed its classification to “stateless” upon arriving to the Toronto International Film Festival last month.
“It is my refugee film,” she told The Electronic Intifada. “Like Palestinians everywhere, it is stateless.”
The following interview was conducted shortly after Arraf returned from a film festival in Iceland.
