In one of the greatest must-watches of the year, Syrian director Ameer Fakher Eldin creates a visual masterpiece that pays homage to his motherland and its inhabitants.
Directed by: Ameer Fakher Eldin
Year: 2021
Country: Syria, Palestine, Germany, Qatar
Length: 112 minutes
Adnan lives with his wife and young daughter in the countryside. He spends his days milking his cow and wandering through nature, staring at the apple trees. Adnan has a drinking problem and neglects his family, which causes his brother in law to insist that Adnan must divorce his wife. Adnan’s wife dreams of emigrating to another country, naming France, as she thinks they make delicious bread. Meanwhile Adnan’s father disowns him, as he sees him, a drunkard and unlicensed doctor, as a failure. All these plot points could fit into a drama piece set anywhere in the world. However, there’s one extra point to the premise of this film: It’s set in the occupied Golan Heights.
The Golan Heights is a region in the Levant that was captured from Syria by Israel during the six-day-war in 1967. Israel took the land from the Syrians to expand its territory and create a buffer zone against Syria. During the violent taking over, most Syrians fled the region. Nowadays, the Syrian inhabitants are still not allowed to return to the region. With Israel destroying the environment, leaving many citizens with sparse recourses and still being under occupation, many of its current inhabitants are faced with the dilemma of either resisting or fleeing. With not much discussion about it in the rest of the world, the occupied Syrian Golan is often referred to as ‘the forgotten occupation’. Al Garib is one of the very few films to have been shot in the region and to address the current situation.
In Al Garib, Adnan’s wife wants to leave the country, as it’s safer to raise their child outside of the region. Adnan, as an admirer of his homeland, refuses to leave, which causes emotional great distance between the pair. There’s a conflict going on in his mind, as he, too, knows that the conditions the family is living in aren’t healthy, but he can’t bear to hand over his land to the state that has occupied him and his people for over 50 years. He resorts to alcohol to keep his mind from the conflict. When Adnan and his friends notice a wounded man lying on the other side of the border, they decide to help him and illegally take him across the border to The Golan. This event brings Adnan new insights.
Even though Al Garib is only director Ameer Fakher Eldin’s first film, the filmmaker already proves himself to be a master of the craft. Using exceptionally strong visual language, Eldin makes Al Garib’s message jump out of his carefully crafted frames. From a shot of a streaming blue river slowly panning to a carcass lying in an empty landscape, representing the destruction of all beauty within the environment; to a young girl losing her baby tooth, marking the process of growing up in an emotional vision as seen by her absent father. Within milliseconds, these shots convey so much emotion. All frames are packed in a small aspect ratio, to emphasize on the claustrophobia and isolation that is felt in this setting. The way Eldin and his cinematographer shoot the Golan landscapes and crops -of which there are many shots to be found- in the most gorgeous light is a true testament to how much the director and the main character are enamored by this land. This causes a huge contrast, when smoke gradually covers landscape and gunshots and explosions are heard. Eldin shows how a land full of life succumbs under occupation. In the end, Al Garib’s message is reiterated once more, through a mesmerizingly powerful monologue.
Al Garib premiered at the 2021 Venice International Film Festival in the Giornate Degli Autori selection.
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