The Teacher, directed by the British-Palestinian filmmaker and activist Farah Nabulsi, is an accurate representation of the struggles and turmoils that Palestinians face on a daily basis.
Palestinian teacher Basem, played by Saleh Bakri, is struggling with a personal devastating loss involving his son. His life drastically changes when he bonds with Adam, one of his students. In the meantime, he also develops a connection with a British social worker, Lisa, played by Imogen Poots. The writer-director entangled their story with the story of an Israeli soldier held captive by a Palestinian resistance group. The resistance group’s demand for a prisoner exchange creates tensions with authorities, intensifying the search for the soldier. In return, Basem and Adam’s neighborhood faces violence.
The Oscar-nominated director describes the film, “The story is set in Palestine. It is Shot in Palestine, about the love of a parent, about self-forgiveness, and the pursuit of justice.” She weaves multiple stories into one fascinating yet heartbreaking story. As a matter of fact, Nabulsi balances the humanitarian aspect of the story while highlighting the political conflict. The story generates sympathy. It makes the viewer feel everything that the characters are going through.
The unstable conditions:
Nabulsi shot her film in occupied Palestinian territory which mirrored the conditions and storylines in the film. She reflected, “It was during my travels to militarily occupied and colonized Palestine, where I saw with my own eyes the extent of the injustice taking place there and many of the things that take place in the film, such as children in military detention, such as these illegal Israeli settler vandalism and violence, such as the home demolitions and so on”
In Nabulsi’s feature debut, she raises an important question “What is justice, and how can we achieve it?”, a question that proves more and more relevant with each passing day.