PRIVATE

Italy, 2004, 90 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Saverio Costanzo.

Tough going for a tough theme.

Private is a cinema-verite, handheld camera, naturally-lit (often dark) picture of a family virtually imprisoned (completely each night) in their own home. We share the claustrophobic tension, the deprivations that the family experience, the constant fear and the perpetual humiliation that lead to clashes in the family, the father taking a defiant pacifist stance, some of the children wanting to be aggressive.

Saverio Costanzo’s narrative is based on an actual family.

The important factor, of course, is where the family lives: they are a Palestinian family. Without warning, a squad of Israeli soldiers take over the house in a brutal manner and with no explanation. They take over the upstairs, threatening the family against coming up to their own rooms. The family is herded into the one room each night. The door is locked each evening and opened each morning. The greenhouse in their yard is pulled down. They build it again.

The father is a teacher, a literate man, who will not move from his house, who obeys the orders because he believes violence and aggression are truly cowardly and he defies the military authority with his human dignity. His wife becomes desperate. He has five children who react very differently, especially the oldest girl who wants to fight back but who, instead, creeps upstairs and watches the Israeli soldiers through a crack in a wardrobe and learns to admire her father.

The cast is both Palestinian and Israeli (some prominent actors from both communities). By focussing solely on the plight of the family, presuming that audiences knows the relationship between Israel and Palestine, the film makes us identify with the family rather than with the soldiers and abhor this kind of oppression. (The film was made in southern Italy standing in for Palestine.)

1. The dramatic impact of the film? Thematic impact? Hard facts, hard stories? Human rights?

2. The style of the film, the hand-held camera, naturalistic style, light and darkness, grainy film? Authentic atmosphere?

3. The editing, the long takes, the pace? The effect of the experience of the family on the audience?

4. The title, the focus on the family, the house? Not seeing the wider story of the clash between Israel and Palestine?

5. The family setting, their lifestyle, the house, the parent, the father and his teaching background, English Literature? The wife, the five children? The age range of the children?

6. The sudden eruption of the soldiers into their house, in the dark, the shots, the soldiers and their brutality, no explanation, occupying the house, confining the family, forbidding them to go upstairs to their rooms, the threats, locking them in, the night and the family all together in the one room?

7. The way of life during the occupation of the house, being able to go out during the day, the car, going to school, building the greenhouse? At night, the meal, homework, their being herded in, locked in? The difficulties of sleeping, the soldiers’ noise, the little girl wanting to go to the toilet…?

8. The soldiers themselves, young Israelis, their training, attitude towards the Palestinians? Shooting, the noise? Settling in? Friendships, arguments, Ofer as harsh leader? The soldier playing the flute and his being forbidden? Their watching the football on TV? The soldiers and their interactions as glimpsed by Maryam through the cupboard crack? Their characters, the threats to the family, the commander putting the gun to the head of the father? Then suddenly gone? A new group coming in?

9. The father, his strength of character, his philosophy, as regards the Israelis? Strong stances? The emotional mother? The youngest children, Nada being locked out, her father holding the flame to the keyhole? Maryam and her aggression? Youssef and his homework, his father considering him lazy? Lying and watching the television? Wanting to move to a friend’s house? The younger son and his finding the grenade, setting it up in the greenhouse, the possibility of his father being killed by it? The young boy, going upstairs, following his sister?

10. The detail of family life, through the hours of the day, the night? Their ability to cope, the consequences? The difficulties and dissensions?

11. The father, his more pacifist stand, his saying that violence was a way of cowardice? His decisions, forcing his orders? On his wife, the children and their schooling and studies, the youngest children? His being held at gunpoint? His stance being vindicated? His human dignity and pride? His wife, and her having to submit to her husband?

12. Maryam, her aggression, going upstairs, spying, her change of attitude, dealing with her little brother? Admiration for her father?

13. The experience of repression, humiliation, the lasting effects? Freedom and liberty?

14. The fact that this was made with Israeli and Palestinian cast working together? Based on a true story? The Italian writer-director’s perspective?