Palestinian filmmaker Annemarie Jacir has written, directed, and produced over 16 films. Her short film “Like Twenty Impossibles” was the first Arab short film in history to be an official selection of the Cannes Film Festival and continued to break ground when it went on to be a finalist for the Academy Awards. Her other credits include award-winning features “Salt of This Sea” and “When I Saw You.”
“Wajib” is Palestine’s submission for the 2018 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.
AJ: “Wajib” is a film about a divorced father and his adult son who are forced to spend the day together in Nazareth delivering wedding invitations per local Palestinian tradition.
They are two people trying to connect, but they’ve made different choices in their lives and no longer understand the other. It’s a story about a broken family relationship.
W&H: What drew you to this story?
AJ: I was interested in this masculine tradition of men delivering wedding invites and being forced to spend time together — and being forced to confront each other and say the things they have not said.
I was also interested in setting a film in Nazareth, the largest Palestinian city inside Israel, with all its tensions, stress, and great humor.
W&H: What do you want people to think about when they are leaving the theater?
AJ: I like to leave questions, not just for the audience but for myself. It’s perhaps why I focus on the family dynamic in “Wajib” — that uneasy space where you are fighting for your independence and yet always drawn back to some other place which you cannot always understand. Family can affect you in ways that no one else can.
W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?
AJ: It’s all the same challenges that all filmmakers deal with when working in independent cinema — financing, finding support, finding a good crew. But for us, on top of that we have all the Kafka-esque restrictions of military occupation — which are not just the obvious ones of checkpoints and permits — but come up in the most mundane and basic ways: picking up a crew member from the airport, speaking Arabic on set and having the police called on you, and renting equipment.
W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made.
AJ: The film is a fantastic collaboration of many co-producers including Colombia, France, Norway, Germany, UAE, Qatar, and the UK. My first feature was made that way, too. As you can imagine, there’s a whole production nightmare to do that in terms of logistics.
At the same time, it’s all these small amounts of money from various countries all over the world and funds which made the film possible. As a writer and a director, for me it meant that people could relate to this very specific and small story in ways that I never imagined.
W&H: What does it mean to have your film included in the Academy long list for a foreign language Oscar?
AJ: It’s my third time being included in the Academy list and I feel that it’s important mostly because we are a country that has not traditionally been represented in mainstream spaces. We have so many stories and so many filmmakers, and in the last several years people are starting to notice.
W&H: What’s the best and worst advice you’ve received?
AJ: Best advice: My father taught me not to look back. I try to abide by that.
The worst advice I ever received was being told I had to choose between being a mother and being a director and that it was impossible to be both.
W&H: What advice do you have for other female directors?
AJ: Trust your gut. It’s all there. Everything is right there.
W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.
AJ: “Beau Travail” by Claire Denis. That film is so beautiful, moving, and evocative. I love its confidence. I love how Denis chooses to re-tell this story, the world she creates in the film, her work with the actors, and her ability to capture rage, jealousy, and a desire to break free.
W&H: There have been significant conversations over the last couple of years about increasing the amount of opportunities for women directors yet the numbers have not increased. Are you optimistic about the possibilities for change? Share any thoughts you might have on this topic.
AJ: I have to be optimistic — otherwise life gets to be too much. At the same time, I sometimes feel women are in a worse place than ever before. I feel that girls and boys are being raised in a world far more divided and limiting. Much of the time it feels we’ve moved backwards.
In terms of our industry, the numbers have not increased. The funding institutions, the festivals, the producers — it’s a man’s world. Women still have to work at least twice as hard as a man. It’s inexcusable.
