2023-11-16 22:31:43
The German network ARD withdraws from showing the film “Duty” by Palestinian Anne-Marie Jacir
The German network ARD decided to refrain from showing the film “Duty” (2017) by Palestinian director Anne-Marie Jacir, which was scheduled for next Sunday.
On Thursday, the American website Deadline quoted the German co-producer of the film, Titus Krenberg, as saying: “The film has been removed from the screening schedule. Within the network, we have been told that it has been decided that this is not the appropriate time to show a Palestinian film.”
“Duty” was filmed in Nazareth and directed by Jacir in the form of a black comedy, fitting for a story that shows the complexities and contradictions of life in occupied Palestine. The story seems very ordinary if it were not in Palestine. The return of Shadi, the engineer son (Saleh Bakri), from Italy to the country to help his father Abu Shadi (Muhammad Bakri) in preparing the wedding of his sister Amal (Maria Zureiq), reveals the complex layers of reality, socially and politically.
Most of the film takes place in an old Volvo car, where the father, who is over sixty, rides alongside his son, who drives his father’s favorite car, and they move from street to street and from house to house with the aim of following the traditional method of distributing invitations to the wedding by hand.
But despite the great celebration of the film when it was shown, the ARD network – a joint network that includes 10 German public radio stations – chose not to show it, in light of the insane restrictions on all Palestinian content in the West, especially in Germany, since the start of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip in October 7 last.
Kreinberg said that other concerns emerged from the screening of the film (albeit unofficially), since Muhammad Bakri is also the director of the documentary film “Jenin, Jenin” (2002), for which the occupation has been on trial since it began showing 21 years ago.
The final chapter of the trial is the issuance of a decision in 2021 to confiscate all existing copies of the film and fine Bakri, in compensation for one of the occupation soldiers who appeared in the film. The court also obligated Bakri to pay the court’s legal expenses. “Jenin Jenin” has toured the corridors of the Israeli courts since it came to light.
In an interview with Deadline, Palestinian director Anne-Marie Jacir said she was “absolutely dismayed” by ARD’s decision to withdraw the film, adding: “A film about a father and son delivering wedding invitations. At this dark moment in history, it is shameful that ARD has chosen to suppress Artists’ voices instead of providing a space where we can share our stories, our culture, our dreams… It is deeply disturbing that in 2023 Germany is engaging in censorship and the silencing of independent voices. This is the opposite of everything the free world should be.”
The film “Duty” premiered internationally at the Locarno Film Festival competition in 2017, and won four awards, including the Grand Prix, and then won 36 other international awards, including:
Best Feature Film Award at the Malmö Arab Film Festival. The film also won the Arab Critics Award from the festival (2018). Muhr Awards for Best Feature Film and Best Actor (for Muhammad Bakri and Saleh Bakri), Dubai International Film Festival 2017. Golden Crow Pheasant Award for Best Film, Kerala International Film Festival 2017.
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