May Odeh Director of "Diaries"

Your film speaks about ‘faces of fear’ in Palestine. What type of layers does fear have?

Since I am from Palestine, and I have been living under occupation since I was born, this kind of approach was my only possible choice. My home country is a place where I face the different layers of fear every day, because these layers are everywhere all the time. My first visit to Gaza was to shoot the film, even if it is only one hour away from the West Bank city where I live. When I arrived, I was surprised at how people are living there, and noticed that the situation is much more complicated than at home. You know, you follow the news, read the newspapers, of course, but if all the scary details are around, they do not allow you to move forward.

Can Diaries even be surprising for the Palestinians?

When I show my film to Palestinians outside of Gaza, their first reaction is amazement about the beauty of the city. My sister, for example, said to me after the screening that she could never imagine such a nice place. I think this can happen because they see this place differently from the pictures of the news for the first time. In Diaries, I emphasize the contrast: we have a wonderful city which could be a basis to live normally, however we live abnormally there. Anyway, I am still curious on the reaction of the Gaza residents, because I am just arranging the screening for them. I hope I can get the permission at the beginning of the next year, because I really need their feedback.

In your opinion, what does their tomorrow look like?

I began to shoot my film two years ago, and the situation hasn’t changed yet. This is a dirty political game in which a lot of people are participating. When you are outside, you can say that one should stop this or that, but when you are inside it is much more complicated. I have also been involved in this topic from the beginning, so I decided to help to find the solution through my profession. I am a member of an initiative group on the mission of creating cinema industry in Palestine. We need the atmosphere of cinema, however we only have one theatre in Ramallah, a commercial one in Nablus, and we don’t have theatre in Gaza at all. I try to remain active, because, in Palestine, we never stop moving; we have Intifadas, movements, marches, asking at least for unity. To be honest, we don’t see the final consequences of the Arab Spring yet, but it gives us some hope.

Besides you are a woman director, what else makes you put women in focus?

Palestinian women are very unique, because they suffered a lot in their lives. Everybody in Gaza lives under bad circumstances, but to be a girl there is something hilarious. They are mothers and sisters of prisoners, widows of their husbands at the same time. They learned how to get their rights with their own hands, and do not fear to say what they want. These women cross the lines without any fear: they make films, write articles, and they go to work crossing the checkpoint every day which is also a fight that people need to see.

The film is divided into three different parts according to the three main female characters, who are women living in Gaza at different stages of self-definition. The first one, who actually made me come to Gaza, tries to be at peace with the occupation, the second one just started to question her life, she has a lot of positive energy and is waiting for the next step, which the third one has already done. Although they seem to be very different at first sight, they share the same destiny.

How many men are worth one woman - as one of your protagonists asks in the film?

[Laughs]… A lot!

by Janka Barkoczi