November 28, 2013
Inch’Allah –
Canada, 2012
A young boy walks behind a young girl with long black hair
and a fashionable black luxury backpack. The girl approaches a café, where a
polite man welcomes her and takes her order. The boy’s attention soon turns to a
stack of caged bird being sold by a local vendor, and he watches them with the
same wide-eyed wonder as an equally-young boy later in the film admires a flock
of sheep. Suddenly, the joy and wonder of the moment are shattered, replaced by
the sounds of mournful wails, fearful cries, and frantic sirens. The scene,
while predictable, is important, for it presents viewers with a brief glance at
the kinds of events that have fueled the tension, distrust, and, in some cases,
utter indifference that we see exhibited throughout the rest of Anais
Barbeau-Lavalette‘s 2012 film, Inch’Allah.
One of the problems with Inch’Allah
is its adherence to the notion that viewers need an outsider to help them
understand the issues involved in certain conflicts. According to this line of
thinking, they need a western doctor in order to understand just how terrible
Idi Amin was or Caucasian characters to understand the evils of Jim Crow laws
or the Klu Klux Klan. This technique can be effective for lesser-known
conflicts, ones that do not get much attention on the nightly news; however,
for those that are much more well-known, it can seem like pandering to or
underestimating an audience, and unfortunately, that is slightly the case with Inch’Allah. The film presents the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict as seen through the eyes of Chloe (Evelyne Brochu),
a Canadian obstetrician who lives in Israel, but works at a makeshift clinic
for pregnant Palestinians in the West Bank.
Through her eyes, viewers see the chaos and destitution that
exists on the Palestinian side of the Israeli-erected wall that separates
Israel from the West Bank. One of the film’s most-used images is of a graffiti-covered
section of the wall that is surrounded by piles of garbage, which refugees
scrounge through daily in an effort to find basic necessities. It is not hard
to imagine the area sprawling with businesses and homes were it not for the
wall. We also see scenes of momentary joy – the fun children have making jokes
and teasing each other, smiles that appear on people’s faces when they sit down
to eat together as a family, put on make up, or simple light up a cigarette. We
also see and hear of moments of sheer humiliation for Palestinian men at the
hands some understandably stressed and overly-cautious Israeli soldiers on
checkpoint duty. In addition, there is of an undercurrent of danger running throughout
the film, which often comes out at night or in isolated areas. Plans are afoot,
the seeds of violence are being sown, and people are being recruited for
horrifying and deadly acts of what they consider retaliation for wrongs done
them.
Witnessing such horrors would undoubtedly affect someone’s
psyche, and I imagine that some people will find Chloe’s journey starting and
fascinating. However, as I watched the film, I couldn’t help but be
increasingly drawn to the character of Rand (Sabrina Ouazani) and intrigued by
her circumstances. This is a character torn between feelings of hope and bouts
of despair. Pregnant, she holds out a glimmer of hope that the future will be
better for her child, yet with her husband awaiting a jail sentence and her dismal
economic prospects, it is hard for her to keep those hopes going. I suspect
that Inch’Allah would have been a
more moving film had it been scripted around her, similar to the way Paradise Now centers around two
Palestinian men and not an outsider.
The film includes a particularly moving scene in which Chloe
takes Rand’s family to their former family home on the Israeli side of the wall.
The home is now reduced to rubble, and the area has been essentially abandoned.
Still, the family sits in the area that used to be their kitchen and reminisces
about what were then simpler times, and for a moment, they are happy. It is
then that one of them voices his resentment about having had to get permission
to visit what was once theirs. The scene made me question reports that few Palestinians
actually seek what has come to be called “the Right of Return.” There are also
several touching scenes involving a young boy named Safi (Hammoudeh Alkarmi) who
wears a superhero costume and dreams of flying over the wall he walks along
every day. On the other hand, there are too many speeches that approach
sermons, most of which end with a variation of the sentiment, “This is not your
war, Chloe,” and the film has an ending that seems unnecessarily stereotypical
for a film of this kind and that is unfortunately telegraphed too far in
advance.
That said, Inch’Allah
works, albeit not nearly as well as it probably could. It is well acted, and it
includes a few surprising turns. I doubt well-informed viewers will learn a
great deal new from the film about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a whole,
but they will likely be moved by the film’s diverse characters and the film’s
documentary-style imagery. It is very easy to believe what we see in the film,
and it is possible to come away from it with a better understanding of the
individuals directly affected by the conflict. However, it does make you wonder
just how well the film could have worked had the conflict been viewed through a
different set of eyes. (on DVD in Region 3; on DVD in Region 1 on December 3)
3 stars
*Inch’Allah is in
French, English, Arabic, and Hebrew.
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