Sharqiya is an Israeli film about a Bedouin man who lives with his brother and his brother’s wife. The main character, Kemal, works as a security guard at a bus station while his brother stays and takes care of their land and their animals. The brothers are given an evacuation order because their homes was going to be demolished, it was built illegally without a permit even though their family’s ownership of the land predated the existence of Israel as a country.
The brothers choose not to sell their land to the government in the hopes that the demolition will not be carried out. Kemal also tries to take matters into his own hands in a way through his job. He finds a land mine, disarms it, puts it into a backpack that he leaves lying around the bus station where he works and then calls it in. Because he “saw” and notified his boss about the bad and there actually was a bomb in it he is a hero for the day. A reporter interviews him and he shares the story of him and his family and the demolition order. However, when he watches the news that night his entire interview and story is not broadcasted.
In the end, the government demolishes their home. But immediately after it is demolished the brother and his friends start to rebuild it. While this makes complete sense, it honestly never occurred to me that they would just rebuild the home. What was most striking to me about this scene was how the brothers returned to their original routine so quickly. While the brother rebuilt their home the main character walked off to go catch the bus to work.
The ending in that sense was troubling for me because I felt that the nonchalance of the scene where they began to rebuild the home undermined to demolition of the home to begin with. The other aspect of the Kemal that I found interesting was his loyalty and attachment to his time in the army. When he was packing up his belongings before the demolition he grabbed two photos of him in the army, the flag for his unit, as well as the beret from his uniform. I found his attachment interesting because he still felt a connection to the group while he was packing up to watch the same government he served destroy his home. However, overall the movie was very good. It also ended up being the premier of that film in Israel.
After the movie Nick, Eliana, and I went to the French Hospice and sat at the rooftop restaurant (the one Aviv took us to) and had some wine and chatted.
~Sarah