NEIGHBOURS

Switzerland, 2021, 124 minutes, Colour.

Serhed Khalil.

Directed by Mano Khalil.

The northern part of Syria where Kurds live is not so often seen in cinema. Here the audience is invited to go back several decades, meet the Kurds, especially a Kurdish family, who, in fact, live next door to a Jewish family which had settled in the area. They are the neighbours.

The wonderful thing about the film is that the central character is a little boy, Sero, and we see the characters and the events through his eyes. He is first seen with his mischievous uncle secretly releasing balloons in the air, with the Kurdish colours, very quickly fired on by Turkish border guards. Sero lives with his mother and father, with that same mischievous uncle, his father’s parents and a little baby sister. The father of the Jewish family runs a store in the village, supported by his wife, but very concerned about their young daughter, Hannah, wanting to help her escape from the region.

The Kurds seem to have come to a state of living with tension, especially with the Turkish border and a huge notice in stones on the side of the adjacent hill extolling Turkey. At one stage they try to visit Sero’s mother’s parents at the border, 15 minutes, continually harassed by the border guards.

The family seem to have settled into this way of life, staying in the village, sometimes a visit to the city for a visit to a gynaecologist or to visit officials issuing passports (with a succession of refusals and then acceptance of bribes).

But, a teacher from the city arrives, highly political, classes in Arabic (which Sero does not understand). The teacher is full of Syrian propaganda, seeing the president as the Fuhrer and everybody saluting the flag with a Sieg Heil gesture. And, into his propaganda come anti-Semitic myths, tales that Jews trap little children to kill them and to make cakes with them. Despite his friendship with his neighbours, lighting candles for them on Sabbath, Sero absorbs this anti-Semitic propaganda. The teacher administers corporal punishment, is demanding of the children to speculate on how to eliminate the Jews, having a huge doll which they practice stabbing, organising a play where each of the children has a map of the Arab states, his advocating pan- Arabic union and the speaking solely of Arabic.

The drama has to come to a head. There is a tragic accidental shooting by a Turkish guard and the death of Sero’s mother. The Jewish family then suggest to his father that they might be able to use the dead mother’s identity to smuggle out their daughter. Sero’s father is a good man, self-sacrificing, wanting to do the best.

In fact, the story is Sero remembering his past, and a glimpse then of Sero at detention camps on the border, an older man, and a Swiss delegation with the woman asking him to identify the people in the photo that she has. Yes, it is a reunion.

1. Perspective on the Kurds and their life in northern Syria? Bordering Turkey? A Jewish presence?
2. The landscapes, village, homes, streets, school, the border Hill, the camps? The musical score?
3. The title, Kurds, Turks, Jews? Language, Kurdistan, Arabic? Neighbours and enmities?
4. The opening, Sero and his uncle, mischievous, the balloons, shot down? The right tone?
5. Sero’s story, at home, his parents, the bonding with them? Brother, the baby? His age, play, the Kurdish situation, the Turks? Going to school, the teacher, Arabic, not understanding, treatment at school? The indoctrination? His friendship with the Jewish family, lighting the candle for Sabbath? Classes, the turning against the Jews, prejudice, Sero influenced?
6. The family, the father, dignity, friendship with the Jewish family, his work? Relationship with his children? With the Jewish family? His wife? The attempt to visit her family at the Turkish border, the ill-treatment?
7. The sadness of the death of his wife, acknowledged Turkish guards and the rifle, the shot, the effect, the response of the Jewish neighbours? The proposition for the wife’s documents, for Hannah, to escape? The father and his decision to go along with the plan, the visits to the city, the officials, being passed from one to another, the bribes, eventually getting the documentation?
8. The other members of the village, life, the women together, the hostile husband, the treatment of his wife, pregnancy, the gynaecologist, going to the city, the treatment?
9. The Jewish daughter, her escape? Loss of contact?
10. The anti-Semitic prejudice, the teacher, fanaticism, the ways of destroying the Jews, the stabbing of the doll? Everybody to speak Arabic? The Arabic Empire?
11. Sero, growing up, 40 years later, the camps, refugees? The visit of the Swiss delegation? And meeting Hannah again?