MIRAL

France/ Israel, 2010, 112 minutes, Colour.
Hiam Abbass, Freida Pinto, Alexander Siddig, Vanessa Redgrave, Willem Dafoe.
Directed by Julian Schnabel.

While there were some initial controversies about this production, especially with a director of Jewish background making a film critical of the state of Israel and supportive of Palestinians, audiences generally and critics reacted favorably to the story and the treatment. For international support, Vanessa Redgrave and Willem Dafoe have cameo roles.

Julian Schnabel, artist and film-maker, also directed Basquiat, Before Night Falls, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

The film has a wide scope but focuses on a group of particular characters. It opens in Palestine in 1948, Christmas, moves on a year to the establishment of the state of Israel and the wars and massacres. It then moves to the 1967 war, to events in the 1970s and 1980s, especially the Intifada of 1987. The central character is Hind, a wealthy Palestinian woman who takes in 55 orphan girls in 1948, creating a school and maintaining it for over four decades. The film opens and closes with her death and her funeral. She is played with great intensity by Hiam Abbass.

The film builds up a picture of tensions between Israelis and Palestinians, especially with the visuals of the 1967 war. It shows the consequences of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

But this time there are two more chapters, one for Nadia, an abused woman who finds herself in prison, in the custody of a gentle man from the mosque, Alexander Siddig, who marries her and brings up her daughter. There is also in an intense chapter focus on Fatima, a nurse who becomes politicised and is imprisoned after detonating a bomb in a cinema, showing Polanski’s Repulsion.

The final section of the film is a chapter on Nadia’s daughter, Miral, who had been entrusted to Hind after her mother’s death. Along with a number of students, she is sent out to teach children during the Intifada. She becomes involved with a PLO officer and a car bomb explosion. She is arrested, interrogated and tortured but, being an Israeli citizen, she is released. Later she leaves Palestine on a scholarship to Italy where she becomes a journalist.

The film, in fact, is based on a novel by Rula Jebreal who wrote the screenplay, an autobiographical novel.

The film is dedicated to people on both sides of the conflict who want peace.

1. The impact of the film? For Palestinians? Israelis? Observers? The history of Palestine and its role, the conflict? The final dedication to both sides working for peace?

2. Time-span, a framework of 1994 and the death and funeral? 1947 and Christmas, 1948 in the state of Israel, 1967 and the Six Day War and occupation, life in the 1970s, 1987 and the Intifada? The chapters of the film with the names of the characters?

3. Location photography, the atmosphere Palestine, of Israel, cities and towns, the coast, the north, desert, Jerusalem?

4. The use of news footage, especially of the war and conflicts?

5. The range of songs, the songwriters, their lyrics? Laurie Anderson, Tom Waites, Ennio Morricone?

6. The framework, Hind Husseini, her death and funeral preparations, the funeral and tribute? The flashbacks?

7. The atmosphere of 1947, Christmas, getting the huge Christmas tree, the American party, the Americans and Vanessa Redgrave appearing, Willem Dafoe? The party, putting politics aside? The anticipation of the state?

8. 1948, the state, Israeli joy, the response of the Palestinians, the footage of war and destruction?

9. The orphans, Hind and her family, whether to stay or to go to Jericho or other towns? Her finding the children in the street, taking them to her house, setting up the school, the support of her mother? Her motives? School, education, the next generation, the girls? Jamal and his bringing the orphans to the school? Her visit to the leaders, the visit, the grant of one million dollars?

10. 1967, the war footage, the explanations of the occupation? The impact of the visuals? The school continuing? Hind and her ageing? The difficulties? The effect on the girls?

11. Nadia’s story, abused by her uncle, the belly dancing, on the bus, taunt, breaking the woman’s nose? The arrest? In prison, six months? Her being released, Jamal, his marrying her, bringing up the little girl, their life, her bitterness, unable to overcome her past, her going out, going into the sea and drowning?

12. The Fatima story? Her being kind to Nadia, her own story, three life sentences? A nurse, the arrests, the condemnation of the three men, her being politicised, active, the groups, the bomb, going to the theatre, the screening of Repulsion and the intercutting with the audience, the screen and the bomb? In court, refusing to stand, defiance?

13. The story of Miral, the meaning of the flower, on the wayside? Her mother and the later revelation that Jamal was not her father, taking her to the school after her mother’s death, her years at the school? With Hind? 10 years later, 17, the Intifada? The girls being sent out to teach, the bus, the checkpoints? Children? Meeting the PLO man, their discussions, the different sides, car bomb and the explosion? The documents and one page being taken by the soldiers on the bus? Her arrest, Jamal’s reaction? The interrogation, urinating on the floor, the big woman and the beating, in court, showing the wounds on her back, the defense, the prosecution, the fine and her being freed? Suspicion by the activists? The PLO man under suspicion because of his wanting a peace agreement, the 22% of land returned to the Palestinians?

14. Going to Haifa, her cousin, his girlfriend, the party on the beach, not wanting to dance, the discussion about love, the girl’s father and his military attitude, the meal at her cousin’s house, the mother and her hostility, getting the lift back to Jerusalem?

15. The discussions with her father, love for him, the discussions with Hind, the scholarship to Italy, journalism and her future?

16. Her father’s illness, his death, the funeral?

17. Audience response to the film, critical response, controversies? Offering stories to understand the conflict, the reference to the Oslo agreement, the two states, and its not happening?