Farha

Palestine, 1948. Farha is fourteen and lives in the village. She wants to study; her father is the village head and is persuaded to send his daughter to school in the city. At exactly that point the attack begins. The village is emptied, people run. Her father locks her in the pantry of the house and promises to come back. He does not. Farha stays in the pantry. The water runs out, the food runs out, and she sees what happens outside only through a hole in the wall. The film takes place almost entirely inside that room. Darin J. Sallam writes and directs. Karam Taher plays Farha; Ashraf Barhom is in the cast. It is a Jordanian production. The story rests on a real account the director heard in her childhood; that girl was called Radiyyeh. It was shown at the Toronto Film Festival in 2021 and chosen as Jordan's entry for the Oscar. Its arrival on Netflix drew hard reaction in Israel; ministers attacked the film and there were calls to cancel subscriptions. The producers issued a statement in response. What the narrative builds is less what is shown than what is not; the violence is mostly heard as sound. Its budget was small and it has almost a single location. Its limit is scale; the narrative is tied to one viewpoint and gives little historical context. Who it is for: viewers who like drama on political ground and narratives in closed spaces. Who it is not for: the subject is heavy, one scene hard to bear, and the film may be found partisan.