A Palestinian family up against the Wall
Daniel Nelson
200 Metres is a film about a family divided by the Israeli Wall that turns into a Palestine road movie and then into a thriller.
It movingly portrays domestic stress from the tensions of mother and children living so close to father yet so far apart, before it shifts gear into a black comedy as the motley collection of passengers squabble with each other and run the gauntlet of Israeli checkpoints.
That’s a lot to take on for a director’s first feature, and perhaps it should be two separate films, but it’s hugely entertaining and makes a serious point about the tragedy and resilience of Palestinians.
“We wanted to say in 200 Metres that we deserve to live and be normal people,” producer May Odeh has said. “We don’t need big statements, just freedom of movement and basic human rights.”
The cruelties of the situation highlighted in the story of the father’s tortuous attempt to enter Israel in order to visit his injured son were subsequently echoed in the failed attempt by director Ameen Nayfeh to leave Palestine in order to help with post-production work in Sweden (he finally had to do the job on Zoom) and his difficulty in getting to Venice for a film festival screening.
But don’t get the impression that this is a grim political film. Yes, the underlying politics are indeed awful, and so is the plight of this and other families ripped apart by a giant security barrier. But the film revels in the strengths, weaknesses and foibles of ordinary people, arguing, loving, smuggling, making awkward choices, laughing, getting impatient, being frightened, telling lies, finding themselves in a mess – and almost asphyxiating in a car boot.
Nowhere is the tone more on target than when one of the passengers, a man trying to find work, guides the others to a spot where he says they can cross undetected and begins to scale the Wall. Immediately two Palestinians appear and rush towards the group, yelling at them to stop, demanding payment and shouting, “This is our wall.”
+ 200 Metres is showing at the London Film Festival, 7-18 October. Info: https://www.bfi.org.uk/london-film-festival