Art_Africa_2016_03_

ARTAFRICA

FEATURE / CARTHAGE FILM FESTIVAL

The film tells the story of a Palestinian car thief who is trying to steal Israeli cars to sell in the

Palestinian occupied territory. In order to escape his troubled life he needs to secure the bribe

money needed to get a Schengen Visa. Just as he’s about to raise enough for the bribe, he steals

a car that has an Israeli soldier in the trunk and gets caught up between the Palestinian militias,

who are looking for their car, and the Israeli intelligence, who are looking for the Palestinian

militias.

How does the film tackle some of the issues faced by contemporary Palestinians?

When we were developing the story, we were aware that most Palestinian fiction films have

characters that are either a representation of the Palestinian hero – the national patriot – or the

contrary, the victim, the refugee, the impoverished. In Western (and some Israeli) cinemas the

portrayal is often negative. There is some kind of expectation of what a film out of Palestine/

Israel looks or feels like. One of the things that the audiences have enjoyed about the film is

that it is a little different and focuses more on the characters, with the context as a political

backdrop. It’s not at the foreground. In this film we wanted to tell the story of your average

man, an imperfect person who wants to have a better life. Mousa, the main character, is dealing

with a love affair that was ruined by his own actions. He’s dealing with his father and his family’s

economic situation in a refugee camp. He wants to escape his troubled past and live a better life

like everyone else. The web of characters in the film serves to represent a variety of characters,

institutions and systems that act on Palestinians.

Here I am speaking about not only the occupation, but corruption, international workers, foreign

aid and the representation of the Israeli soldier. The relationship with the soldiers raises a lot

of questions. In reality, we encounter Israeli soldiers all the time. Palestinians are stopped at

CARTHAGE FILM FESTIVAL / IN CONVERSATION WITH MUAYAD ALAYAN 12/20

Muayad Alayan, stills from Love, Theft and other Entanglements, 2015. Sound: Costas Fylaktidis. Edit: Sameer Qumsiyeh.
Production: PalCine Productions. Distribution: MAD Solutions. Duration: 93 minutes. All images courtesy of PalCine Productions.