‘…together with my child sisters, age three and one.’
‘My dad was humiliated, and he began screaming at them.’

IMAGE: Adam Bakri in All That is Left of You.

In the summertime of 2023, Palestinian American author, director and actress Cherien Dabis was all set to direct her third characteristic, an epic saga about a big intergenerational household’s struggles from the Nakba in 1948 to the present day.

Nakba is the time period used to explain the ethnic cleaning of Palestinians although violent displacement and dispossession of their land, property and belongings, by Zionist paramilitaries after the institution of the State of Israel.

The movie All That is Left of You had an enormous solid which included three actor members of the well-known Palestinian Bakri household — Adam Bakri (Oscar-nominated movie Omar) performs the youthful model of the household patriarch Sharif, Adam’s actual life father — the late Mohammed Bakri (Wajib and the TV sequence Homeland) performed the older Sharif; and Adam’s older brother Saleh (The Band’s Go to, Wajib and The Trainer) performs Sharif’s older son Salim. Dabis solid herself as Salim’s spouse Hanan.

However the occasions of October 7, 2023 modified Dabis’ plans and he or she needed to begin from the scratch, elevating funds once more and searching for different capturing areas.

Ultimately, Dabis did full the movie and it premiered on the 2025 Sundance Movie Pageant.

After that, it traveled to a number of festivals the place it received a variety of awards.

A deeply transferring movie All That is Left of You takes the trail of forgiveness and redemption as a way to convey peace between the Palestinians and Israelis.

All That is Left of You was chosen as Jordan’s official entry for the Greatest Worldwide Movie Oscar, and has been shortlisted among the many remaining 15 worldwide movies.

India’s entry Homebound can be in that shortlist as are two different Palestine-themed movies Palestine 36 (Palestine’s entry) and The Voice of Hind Rajab (Tunisian movie and Grand Jury Prize Winner on the Venice Movie Pageant).

The movie is co-presented by two celeb government producers, Mark Ruffalo and Javier Bardem.

Issues had been transferring high quality for All That is Left of You and the opposite Palestinian movies when instantly final month, the Indian authorities didn’t give them clearance for screening on the Worldwide Movie Pageant of Kerala.

Dabis’ filmography consists of the Cannes movie competition winner Amreeka (2009) and a variety of hit reveals, Solely Murders within the Constructing, Ramy, Ozark and Quantico.

Dabis tells Aseem Chhabra, “The Palestinian story within the western media has been incomplete whether it is ever featured within the mainstream narrative. At worst, it is racist the way in which wherein we’re portrayed. Palestinians develop into displaced, and we’re dispossessed and that story is rarely advised.”

 

IMAGE: Cherien Dabi in All That is Left of You.

Cherien, I need to discuss to you about what we witnessed in Gaza within the final two years — the genocide, which finally ended due to the ‘ceasefire’. I’m positive your script was being ready lengthy earlier than. However did the script, the shoot and the post-production get impacted in any means with what was taking place on the bottom?

Sure, I began penning this again in 2020, lengthy earlier than all of this started.

In truth, I had the concept for it for much longer than that, for about 10 years in the past. We began prepping the movie in Palestine in Might 2023. I used to be working with an area crew for shut to 5 months. I had my key crew fly in from Germany.

We had already begun development on our areas. We had amassed an enormous warehouse with fantastically curated interval props and set dressing. We had been two weeks away from capturing after we had been pressured to evacuate in October.

So the movie was deeply impacted by what occurred on October 7, and actually ceaselessly modified by what occurred subsequent.

The film principally went into disaster after that.

We had been in monetary disaster, we had been in logistical disaster.

We had to determine whether or not we may maintain going.

We needed to increase more cash.

We ended up going to Cyprus, the place we had been planning to shoot a small a part of the movie. We shot a bit bit greater than we had been purported to there. I saved hoping we may return to Palestine, however we had been simply by no means in a position to make that occur.

So after Cyprus, we shot in Jordan, within the Palestinian refugee camps. The topography may be very related with Palestine.

You imply much like the West Financial institution?

We had deliberate to shoot throughout Palestine, within the West Financial institution, Jericho, Nablus and Ramallah. We had additionally deliberate to shoot in Haifa and Yaffa in Israel. Jordan was match for the West Financial institution a part of the movie, however Haifa and Yaffa are very laborious. You may’t discover these locations in Jordan.

So we did a few of the capturing in Cyprus, after which in Greece.

The Tel Aviv scenes had been shot in Greece.

The outdated metropolis of Yaffa was recreated on Rhodes Islands, that are a part of Greece and near Turkey.

We needed to begin and cease so many occasions as a result of we had been searching for financing, determining the place to go subsequent. We ended up having to search for Palestine in every single place however in Palestine.

We additionally discovered ourselves making a film about what was taking place because it was taking place, which was so extremely intense. Some days we had been capturing scenes and pictures that we had been watching unfold on our information screens and on our social media feeds.

It was actually completely surreal and really painful. We had been very immersed within the Palestinian story and all the things that is been taking place since 1948 and it made the film that rather more essential to us.

What was so nice was that as crew and solid, we had been so bonded after having to evacuate and going by all that collectively, and figuring out that we had been making one thing that had instantly develop into much more essential, extra pressing.

The movie grew to become a container for our grief, our compassion and our love. It was stunning to have the ability to create one thing throughout a time of such destruction, prefer it was such a present to us, to have the ability to pour ourselves into it.

IMAGE: Mohammad Bakri, second from left, Saleh Bakri, third from proper and Cherien Dabis, second from proper in All That is Left of You.

This isn’t a fictional story. It is a story that occurred to many Palestinians households. I learn that your father migrated and went as a refugee to the US.

Sure, my father was born in a village within the north of the West Financial institution, and principally lived most of his life in exile. My mom is from Jordan.

My father grew to become a refugee in 1967 and was not in a position to return to Palestine, till he received a international citizenship as a way to simply go to his household and return to the one residence he had ever recognized.

He was separated from his household throughout that point, and it was clearly a serious trauma for him.

I watched him endure his total life in exile and watched the state of affairs simply deteriorate increasingly.

The character of Sharif, performed by Adam Bakri and Mohammad Bakri (when the character is older), is considerably impressed by my father. He was obsessive about information from Palestine and was at all times watching TV.

You had been born within the US?

I used to be the primary of my household to be born within the diaspora. However I grew up going backwards and forwards to Jordan and the West Financial institution.

We’d spend months at a time visiting my dad’s native village within the West Financial institution.

So I received a window into what life was like for Palestinians, and I noticed my dad discriminated towards and humiliated at borders and checkpoints. Considered one of my first experiences touring to Palestine was after I was eight.

You and your loved ones had American passports.

Sure, however that did not matter. We had been held on the borders between Jordan and the West Financial institution for like 12 hours.

The contents of our suitcases had been picked by.

The troopers ordered us to be strip-searched, together with my child sisters, age three and one.

My dad was humiliated, and he began screaming at them.

That was my first expertise of what it meant to be Palestinian. It stayed with me.

Then there have been tales I heard about, tales from the Nakba from 1948 and 1967. I puzzled why the world did not find out about this stuff. I puzzled why the world did not know the origin of Palestinian struggling and injustice.

IMAGE: Saleh Bakri, proper and Cheien Dabis, centre, in All That is Left of You.

What would you like the viewers to take from this movie? Lots of people simply affiliate the Palestinians and their battle with Hammas.

I would like them to grasp the origin of Palestinian struggling.

I would like them to grasp what occurred to the folks.

The Palestinian story within the western media has been incomplete whether it is ever featured within the mainstream narrative. At worst, it is racist the way in which wherein we’re portrayed.

Palestinians develop into displaced, and we’re dispossessed and that story is rarely advised.

I’m an enormous fan of the Bakri household. You solid Mohammad Bakri and his sons Saleh and Adam. The place do they stay? In Amereeka, you additionally labored with the fantastic Palestinian actress Haim Abbass (Succession).

I’ve at all times wished to work with all of them, so to get to work with all three of the Bakri males in a single movie was actually outstanding.

Mohammed (he handed away on December 24, 2025) and Saleh stay in Israel. They’re from north of Haifa.

Adam lives in New York and Dubai, Haim lives in France.

About your individual profession in Hollywood, do American filmmakers hesitate to solid you?

, it is such an fascinating query.

My straight reply is I do not know.

If folks did have any hesitation, I do not suppose they present me. I do not suppose I’ve ever actually felt it overtly.

It is a troublesome identification to have, however I would not need it another means.

Pictures curated by Manisha Kotian/Rediff