Alongside her TIFF Gala World Premiere, Palestinian director Annemarie Jasil (“Wajib”) spoke about her fourth feature, the historic drama “Palestine 36.” The film is a production of Palestinian, Ukh, France, Denmark, Qatar, Saudi Jordan, starring Hyam Abbas and Jeremy Irons.
Set in 1936, the film escaping European anti-Semitism and finds new homes in the area, while delving into restless regions as the Palestinian population unites in the largest and longest uprising against the British 30-year regulations. Jasil’s characters include Palestinian peasants, urban inhabitants, revolutionaries and British officers in portraits of the stakes of the playful human.
It premiered the world at Toronto INTL on September 5th. Film festival. Watermelon photos compensate for North American rights. The French MK2 film and lucky numbers jointly represent international rights.
The film offers a new perspective on the Palestinian uprising against British missions.
you are right. That was a question I had too. Why was this story not explored previously? It is one of the most important moments in our history as Palestinians. And it all sets the stage for everything that comes after absolutely everything.
How did you prepare for such a large-scale production?
On a practical level, we started pre-production 10 months before filming. Official preprocessing usually begins three months before filming. But the scope of this was so immeasurable that it was the biggest film that any of us have ever worked on – we wanted to do it right. We spent several months on location, preparation, construction, planting and embroidery of costumes. The entire village on the west bank of the Jordan River has been restored. We built an old British Army vehicle on Iron Smith, Nablus. All the details were essential.
As for my own coach, the practice was the same, but the scope was huge. More cast, more places, more money, everything else. I had each cast member prepare their roles in a variety of ways, including horse riding lessons, swing dance lessons, traditional baking, dialect coaching, typing lessons. The British soldiers’ extras have passed through military boot camps.
You have achieved a very authentic look.
Authenticity is important to me – I wanted to stay true to the times in every respect, but I wanted to indulge in film freedom, freedom of creation. My artistic collaboration with my team is a big part of that. My production designer, Nael Kanj and his team, as well as prop master Hilal Jabareien, are all Palestinians and are deeply involved in the visual world.
Initially, the biggest challenge revolved around the fact that we had to build or create everything…the other big problem was that we needed a village to film the village. Our location manager has finally found a village that is still partially standing on the West Bank. We had to restore and renovate the village and plant everything that the Palestinians had raised (tobacco, cotton).
And what about unexpected difficulties?
Initially, the entire film was prepared for filming in Palestine. Many of them are in my city, Bethlehem. The first day of filming was scheduled for October 14th, 2023.
When everything fell apart and the genocide began, we realized we were in a new situation. Something we never imagined. We were devastated, but we knew that all we had to do was continue. Jordan provided us with a new home for production and a lot of necessary support. I had to start again from scratch. Many locations in Palestine became impossible to film, and they were filmed in Jordan. Over time, as things got worse, they were given the opportunity to film in Greece, Malta, Morocco and Cyprus. Authenticity is still a priority for me and now I feel it is even more important than before. We had to shoot in the land where we were aiming for this film. I could not imagine doing this without my community. And when our people struggled with their presence, I didn’t want to be an exiled filmmaker. Returning to Palestine and ending the film was a bittersweet victory.
