In a first, Jordanian-Palestinian filmmaker Darin Sallam’s film Farha won the ‘Best Youth Film’ award at the 15th Asia Pacific Screen Awards held in Australia.
The film was also screened at the Toronto International Film Festival last year. With the achievement unlocked, Sallam became the first Jordanian filmmaker to win the Asia Pacific Screen Award.
Sallam said the film was inspired by the real-life experience of a refugee, Raddiyeh. Her story, the Jordanian-Palestinian filmmaker said, retells the horrors of Nakba in Palestine.
The term, which translates to calamity, signifies a time between 1947 and 1949 when more than 500 Palestinian towns and villages were destroyed and more than 700,000 people were displaced forcibly.
Sallam added that the migrant woman was locked in a basement by her father during the riots.
“She was a girl who lived in Palestine during the Nakba,” Sallam was quoted as saying by the media.
“Her father locked her in the pantry [to protect her]. Her stepmother let her out later and they both survived, making it to Syria. The father disappeared. After Raddiyeh went to Syria, she met a little girl and told her the story. That little girl was my mother.”
For the unversed, the film revolves around a 14-year-old Palestinian girl who lives in a village where her peers are traditionally married or spoken for, yet Farha wants to continue her education despite the restriction of schooling in her village to boys.
However, the year is 1948 in Palestine, and life is threatened by the looming conflict. The protagonist’s dream takes a turn from seeking education to survival.
APS Awards: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Nandita Das receive trophies for Manto
