“The beginning of freedom is being able to raise a flag. The height of freedom is being able to burn it. » This is how Safwat addresses Tamer, two of the characters in Alam (The Flag), Firas Khoury's first feature film. The beginning of freedom is what a group of high school students want to replace the Palestinian flag with the Israeli flag on the roof of their school. The chosen day is symbolic: the celebration of the Nakba, “the catastrophe” in Arabic, which is also Israel's Independence Day.
A symbolic fight
Tamer, Maysaa, Shekel, Safwat, Rida will each be involved in this high-risk mission for different reasons. In addition to the expulsion that already hangs over the noses of certain students, it is an arrest that eliminates the risk of being caught. The flag is more than a piece of fabric in this Israeli city whose name is never mentioned, it is a symbolic struggle, as the Palestinian director born in 1982 in Eilabun (Israel) confirms: “There is clearly a problem in claiming your Palestine. identity while living in Israel. No matter where the story takes place precisely, it happens whenever there is a problem with the rushing of the Palestinian flag. In O hoist, we say that they exist. »
The band of five does not correspond to the transparent image we have of the Palestinian resistance seen in France: “I wanted to show different perspectives and nuances in the characters’ characters. Not everyone is involved in the resistance, nor in the daily struggle against the occupation. Because most people who experience a disaster or invasion continue to live their lives. » Thus, Tamer, Shekel and Rida are young people more concerned with flirting than fighting.
In the first scene, the three teenagers discuss the rules to follow when cutting a young woman in the presence of her brother. If you're interested in Lenin, it's because that's the name of the local drug dealer. To characterize the protagonist, Firas Khoury drew on his own experience: “I was Tamer, this shy teenager, not very sure of his opinions or his convictions, afraid of the authorities. But if that's really my temperament, then the whole rest of the story is made up. »
The young man joins the operation to seduce Maysaa, who has just arrived at high school. “Maysaa is smart, funny and thermal. She did not advance due to the laws dictated by the patriarchy, but thanks to her personal ideals”, described the director. She resists injunctions to preserve her “reputation,” as when one of her companions advises her to lower her head in a car in which she is the only passenger among four men. “In Arab society, which is mine, women suffer a lot of oppression from men. The character Maysaa embodies my own dream, that of a society where women had space to express themselves, to have a voice”, confides Firas Khoury.
Repairing collective amnesia
The young man attended the same college as Safwat, the initiator of Operation Bandeira. Immersed in activism, like his brothers, he rages against his history teacher, who denigrates the version of history told in school textbooks. His anger is rooted in family history: his grandparents were expelled from their village in 1948. An event directly inspired by the director's life: “I come from a village that was a victim of ethnic cleansing. The entire village became a refugee camp in one day. Palestinian cities and villages were completely emptied of their inhabitants, who ended up working for the Israelis in construction. in houses and in the fields. My family and I managed to return to Palestine. We can study the history of our land, but not that of our catastrophe, the Nakba. » Your film repairs collective amnesia: “I want to shed light on this story to compare it with the Israeli national narrative, which rewrites that of the populations that still live there. »
This skillfully orchestrated memory gap was not filled by older generations. Tamer's parents, marked by a personal episode, constantly warn their son against political involvement. “What happened after 1948 was a great catastrophe for the Palestinians: 80% of this population became refugees; The 20% they encountered in Palestine were in a state of trauma and fear. They didn't know how to react to the occupation. The second generation was afraid of the established order. She really didn’t make any effort to operate within the system”, explains Firas Khoury.
Giving resistance a face
The parents' mission did not resonate with the young people. Their revolt is expressed directly, through demonstrations. But also through labels, omnipresent in the urban field, and music – from rap to “Mawtini”, a sung poem that praises Palestinian resistance. These expressions express their state of mind, between anger and aspirations: “The fourth generation is very proud and is not afraid to confront established ways. He said that it is this generation that I am leading to the liberation of Palestine. »
Alam is a political film that borrows from comedy. The five high school students are absolutely perfect in their mission, as poignant in their goals as they are clumsy in their actions. The most resolutions can falter when it comes to taking action. We carry the weight of History on our shoulders, but we continue to be mainly teenagers whose impulses collide with the adult world and the codes of society. “I wanted to put my camera on these individuals who are portrayed in the media. I wanted to show the world that these teenagers, who we are used to treating as numbers and statistics in the news, have their stories. This is the real point of the film. » The resistance filmed by Firas Khoury has a human face.
Alam (The Flag), film by Firas Khouryin French cinemas from 30 August 2023.
