Palestinian actor Hiam Abbass spoke about the “duty” of starring in films such as Annemarie Jacir’s “Palestine 36” during an in-depth career talk alongside Italian actor Valelria Golino (“Rain Man”) at the International Film Festival Rotterdam on Sunday. The “Succession” star said being a part of the historical film felt like “a duty” when “Palestinian history every day is threatened to be erased and forgotten.”
“When you are born in a struggle, sometimes you don’t make the difference between the artistic and the duty in a way. And [‘Palestine 36’] is one of the examples.” Abbass brought up another recent example in “Bye Bye Tiberias,” directed by her daughter, Lina Soualem, and examining Abbass’s life following her departure from Palestine. “Both movies for me are almost a visit into the history that I inherited.”
“Palestine 36” premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last year and is set in the year 1936 in a Palestinian village that revolts against British colonial rule. In his Variety review, Murtada Elfadl praised the historical epic: “It’s grand in scale, ambitious in storytelling and balanced in the way it pays equal attention to historical scope and detailed characterization. Palestine’s entry to the Oscars has a lot of story to tell, but still manages to singularly draw its many characters and to give specificity to its different locations.”
Abbass met Jacir on the set of “Ramy,” adding that the two “enjoyed each other’s creativity.” When the director expressed a desire to work together, the actor was very quick to say she was up for whatever she brought to her table.
“Just the participation in that movie was important for all of us [who were a part of it],” she went on, talking about “Palestine 36.” “Registering the archives of Palestinian history forever into a movie that will become a future archive in a way was really important.”
The film was a notoriously difficult production. Jacir and her team had built a sprawling, complex set to shoot in Palestine, with photography scheduled to begin on October 14, 2023. Obviously, once the war broke out on October 7, production was halted, going on to be postponed several times before eventually relocating to Jordan, where they shot the film at the end of 2024.
“We were like: what do we do? We wait one day, two days, three days, two weeks… No one knows what’s happening,” recalls Abbass. “They decided to push for a month or two, and it became worse and worse. The village they had built became a target of the settlers in the West Bank, and it became too risky to bring people back. It was impossible, even insurance-wise.”
The actor relayed the logistical nightmare of trying to fly from her home in Paris to Jordan for the shoot, especially as tensions increased in the region. For months, Abbass would get ready to shoot, just to find out it would not be possible. “I fought to be on set. It was a victory to finally be able to do this movie. Suddenly, you find everybody involved in that movie just thinking and feeling the same way. [I had] never experienced such a victory in [my] artistic life or any works I’ve been involved in. This one is an example of how to survive, basically. It’s more than an artistic choice when it comes to that kind of movie.”
Elsewhere in the conversation, Abbass spoke about her directorial career, which started in 2001 with the short film “Le Pain.” Her 2012 directorial debut, “Inheritance,” played in Venice, and she went on to direct for television with “Ramy.”
“It came to be by some kind of necessity,” she said of the impulse to direct. “I moved out of Palestine, went to London and settled in Paris because of a love story. Then I became a mother, because it was very important to me to give time to that as well. I really thought as a mother, as a woman, I really have things to say. How long can you sit and wait for the part to come to you when you have so much to say about life?”
To this day, Abbass has only directed one feature film. Does she have any future plans for a sophomore effort? “I don’t have the time,” she said. “Acting didn’t give me the possibility of sitting and writing and creating, and I didn’t want to just do it to do it. I have a few stories lined up but I’m not in a rush.”
English (US) ·