Farha

Farha is an eager and driven girl with limitless potential. She has a loving family, a beautiful home, and she wants to enroll in school despite traditional gender norms. But when nascent Israeli forces overrun her village, Farha’s father locks her in a pantry to keep her safe. There, she witnesses the murder of a Palestinian family and their newborn baby through a small opening in the wall.

Inspired by the story of fourteen-year-old Radieh’s experience in the 1948 Nakba, Farha is however a patchwork character of all the stories Jordanian director Darim J. Sallam grew up hearing about from family members who survived the Nakba. One of tens of thousands of stories of the Nakba (from Arabic, “catastrophe”), the 1948 ethnic cleansing of 700K+ Palestinians for the creation of the state of Israel. Sallam’s debut feature was selected as the country’s 2023 Oscar entry.

Note from the curator: The film may be triggering to claustrophobia.  

Darin J. Sallam

2021

92 min

Arabic dialogue, English subtitles