The Teacher
Filmed in the West Bank, Farah Nabulsi’s uneven directorial debut focuses more on humanity than politics.
Imogen Poots
Image courtesy of Miracle Comms.
This is an interesting film to which one feels sympathetic. It is the first feature by Farah Nabulsi who in making The Teacher was working from her own screenplay. Although she was born in London in 1978 and established a career as a stockbroker, her roots were in Palestine and, after visiting that country in 2013 to trace the family history, she changed her career. Since then, she has been involved in film as a writer, producer and director and set up a production company, Native Liberty Productions, with the specific intent of showing the human face of the Palestinian people and the injustices with which they are afflicted. No surprise, then, that this first feature furthers those aims and was set up by her company.
The Teacher has certainly been a success in that it has earned several awards, among them the Audience Prize for Best Narrative Feature at San Francisco International Film Festival and another Audience Award in the Washington DC Filmfest as Best Feature Film. My own view is that for all its admirable intentions the film is more flawed than those awards would suggest. But that does not prevent it from being worthwhile and The Teacher is in any case anchored by the performance of its lead actor. Saleh Bakri, already known to those of us who saw Wajib (2017), here appears in the title role, a man named Basem El Saleh who teaches English in a West Bank school.
In seeking a story that would be expressive of all that she wanted to say Nabulsi took account of a real-life saga involving an Israeli soldier named Gilad Shalit who spent five years as a hostage held by Hamas and was only released in 2011 as part of an exchange deal involving a thousand Palestinian prisoners. For her film she retains that period setting (at its close there is a reference to Operation Protective Edge which was initiated in July 2014 in the Gaza Strip by Israel’s Defence Forces) but inevitably Nabulsi’s film also speaks of today given the current situation both in Gaza and in the West Bank. While being fully aware of this, she has nevertheless stated that The Teacher is not intended as a political film and, indeed, in incorporating a plot thread drawing loosely on what happened to Shalit her aim is not only to offer a true portrait of life in the West Bank in recent years but to express concern for the human suffering on both sides. There is, not unreasonably, one character here, an Israeli head of security, who is portrayed unsympathetically but at heart The Teacher is a film of broad humanity.
If it is easier to admire the intentions rather than the finished film, that may be due in part to Nabulsi having to feel her way in making a lengthy feature for the first time. She has given herself a plot that combines a number of intertwining threads and not all of it flows smoothly. Nevertheless, until very late on the tone is right and the general situation is clear enough. We meet the teacher, Basem, at the start and are quickly involved with two of his pupils who are brothers. The younger one, Adam (Muhammad Abed Elrahman), will become a central figure here, somebody all too anxious for vengeance when his brother Yacoub (Mahmoud Bakri) is killed by an Israeli settler (Nael Kanj). One theme that develops lies in Basem’s attempts to help Adam adjust and not to put his own life at risk by attempting to revenge himself on his brother’s killer. But this does not mean that Basem is distancing himself from what is happening in the West Bank. Earlier he had twice spent time in a military prison for his activism and he is now involved in hiding a man in his village home. This man is the figure suggested by Shalit and Basem is helping those who are holding him hostage in the hope of a deal which will free Palestinians held by the Israelis. Nabulsi’s film introduces us to the man's parents and his father, an American diplomat (Stanley Townsend), has a substantial role here and is presented in a way that takes full account of his anguish over his son’s uncertain fate. Meanwhile, another storyline is also developing as Basem, separated from his wife, becomes attracted to an English woman, Lisa (Imogen Poots), who has come from London to work as a counsellor at the school where he teaches.
These various issues together with an awareness of how the situation is bad enough to make it impossible for youngsters to escape its impact and not be drawn in are interwoven but not always as smoothly as one would wish. When a court hearing is anticipated regarding the killing of Yacoub it is confusing to introduce a sudden flashback to an earlier trial and the romance incorporated is handled with too little attention early on to the relationship between Basem and his wife. But, if a lack of experience is sometimes felt when it comes to combining all aspects of the plot effectively, the film’s major flaw is its dramatic climax. Up to that point The Teacher has seemed to reflect the everyday circumstances of West Bank life, not always as adroitly as one would wish but in a manner that smacks of reality. However, the key scene to which it builds plays as clichéd melodrama right down to a character turning up on cue at the precise moment when he can intervene. This undermines the stature of this film although its humanity still renders it a worthwhile view of the situation in the West Bank. Furthermore, even if Saleh Bakri is pivotal here, The Teacher also establishes Muhammad Abed Elrahman as a young actor of strong promise.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Saleh Bakri, Imogen Poots, Muhammad Abed Elrahman, Stanley Townsend, Paul Herzberg, Mahmoud Bakri, Andrea Irvine, Einat Weizmann, Nael Kanj, Muayyad Abd Elsamad, Abd Al Naser Al Sadi, Asmaa Azaizeh, Julia Hamdan.
Dir Farah Nabulsi, Pro Sawsan Asgari, Farah Nabulsi and Ossama Bawardi, Screenplay Farah Nabulsi, Ph Gilles Porte, Pro Des Nael Kanj, Ed Mike Pike, Music Alex Baranowski, Costumes Hamada Atallah.
Cocoon Films/Native Liberty Productions/Philistine Films-Miracle Comms.
115 mins. UK/Qatar/Occupied Palestinian Territory. 2023. UK Rel: 27 September 2024. Cert. 12A.
