© International Film Festival Rotterdam
A House in Jerusalem sheds light on the experiences of thousands of people who have had to flee their homes during and after the invasion of Palestine.
Directed by: Muayad Alayan
Year: 2023
Country: Palestine, United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands, Qatar
Length: 103 minutes
10-year-old Rebecca (Miley Locke) and her father Michael (Johnny Harris), a Jewish family from the UK, are desperately seeking a new beginning after having suffered from a traumatic experience. The two move to Jerusalem to overcome the loss of Rebecca´s mother after a fatal car accident. From the start it’s evident that Rebecca´s mental health has been greatly affected by the incident.
The titular house in Jerusalem to which Rebecca and Michael have moved is filled with peculiar spots that fascinate the lonely Rebecca, including a well from which the girl retrieves an old doll. When Michael finds out about the doll, he immediately throws it away. However, Rebecca is mortified when she finds a ghostly apparition of another girl (Sheherazade Makhoul Farrell), who is missing her doll and haunts Rebecca wherever she goes.
The early scenes of A House in Jerusalem are surrounded by an ominous and fantastical atmosphere, taking elements from supernatural horror movies to create tension. Rebecca being haunted by the ghost, who appears in sudden moments and can only be seen or heard by Rebecca herself, after having suffered from a traumatic experience, causes Rebecca´s mental state to deteriorate. The situation worsens when Michael refuses to believe his daughter´s experiences and instead takes her to a psychiatrist. However, the tone of the film drastically changes when Rebecca decides to listen to the girl’s story. The girl, now known as Rasha, explains how she has been hiding from the war for a long time, with her family nowhere to be found. Through discussing their respective traumas, Rasha and Rebecca become closer. Here, a character that might´ve been turned into a villainous antagonist is humanized by the power of empathy. Having found a friend in a lonely place, Rebecca sets out to find Rasha a new doll and searches for her family, finding out about the war, the history of Rebecca´s new home and a culture and population that is constantly threatened by a violent occupation.
By presenting the audience a protagonist that is uninformed about the occupation of Palestine by settlers but who is also willing to learn, director Muayad Alayan creates an accessible work for western audiences, through which they are able to educate themselves on an important piece of world history and current cultural knowledge. Rather than putting the focus of the story on the crimes of the occupiers of Palestine, Alayan centers the pain and grief of Palestinians who have had to flee their homes during the Nakba (1948) and the violent occupation that has remained to this day. Another aspect that Alayan eloquently highlights is the wish for Palestinians to return to their land, their homes and their culture, which the Israeli government has prohibited them to do. Shifting the story from a scary ghost narrative to one that is full of empathy for the Palestinian people is a strong metaphor for the way Palestinians have oftentimes been portrayed in western media and Israeli communities. Palestinians are often the target of hate campaigns filled with false stereotypes to prevent people from sympathizing with them and their struggle, but once you actually give the Palestinian people a voice (like Alayan does with this work), listen to their stories and become aware of their experiences, you will find that their right to return to where they came from is the least one can offer them.
A House in Jerusalem premiered at the 2023 International Film Festival Rotterdam in the Limelight selection.
obviouslyreviews.com 