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released

This film was made during a time in Palestine when the "Wall" that separates Palestinians from each other and from Israelis was one quarter completed. The film offers the viewer a perspective from seven diverse and ordinary Palestinians whose lives are directly affected by the wall.

You will meet a businessman from Abu Dis, a neighborhood of East Jerusalem, a young mother from Dheishe Refugee Camp near Bethlehem, a music student from Ramallah, a community center director from Jerusalem's Old City, a farmer from the northern Qalqilya district, the director of the Stop the Wall campaign and finally, a member of the African-Palestinian community.

Viewers will witness the effects of the Apartheid Wall on the Palestinian people, and come out with the inescapable conclusion that this wall is another tool in Israel's ethnic cleansing efforts against the Palestinian population.

The great merit of this film lies in the way the political theme, interesting enough on its own, is entwined with private dramas going on in the lives of the widow, the lawyer she engages to fight her case, and the minister's wife who is brought to perceive the human cost of a political decision in which she is implicated. These interlinked public and private themes are delicately handled, with just the right amount of weight being given to each.

Hiam Abbass, who I thought was the best thing about the same director's earlier The Syrian Bride, here shines even more brightly. She gives a wonderfully subtle portrayal of a woman who resists pressure from all sides, including from overbearing male interests, to give in and conform. Against the odds and her natural temperament, she turns her small act of revolt into one symbolic of every individual fighting for justice against overweening authority. This is great acting.