Lina Soualem’s touchingly personal documentary should be required viewing for anyone who wants to understand the Palestinian struggle, and the true emotional toll of an entire people’s displacement.
Those of us who are lucky enough to have had cool parents, would love to pay tribute to them. But when your mom and dad happen to be famous as well, and with fascinating family dynamics behind them, then the task becomes almost a filial duty. And Lina Soualem, the beautiful and talented offspring of thespians Zinedine Soualem and Hiam Abbass has managed to portray them cinematically, without making each film too much of a sugary ode to her parents.
Her brilliance lies in making these stories universal, explaining the massive through intimate, personal films.
In the case of Their Algeria, the first of this diptych, Soualem explored her paternal grandparents’ separation, as two sixty-something immigrants from North Africa living in France. It was personal, touching and a big success at festivals. It turned out to be a film pointing out, with a soft touch, generational miscommunication, the perils of colonialism on immigrant families but also shined a light on the uniqueness of Soualem’s filmmaking.
Her second film belonging to this duo deals with the women on her Palestinian maternal side. Palestine is a word, and a country, so rife with triggers and issues that simply making a film and calling it “Palestinian” is an act of rebellion. But again, Soualem here points out the general by portraying the personal and the result is a minimalist masterpiece, one that should be required viewing for all diplomats, politicians but also citizens of the world who wish to understand what the concept and the underlying causes of the Palestinian struggle are.
Those of us who love Arab cinema, but also streaming shows on TV of late, know and adore Soualem’s mom, Hiam Abbass. With her smokey voice and ironic eyes (though ones that betray all the hurt it means to come from the nowadays nearly invisible Palestine) Abbass has graced films from Hany Abu Assad’s Golden Globe winner Paradise Now, to Eran Riklis’ Lemon Tree, to audience TV hits Ramy and Succession. And much, much more of course.
In Bye Bye Tiberias, Soualem shows us the woman behind the icon. An Abbass who hails from a family of many courageous women, one whose grandmother suffered the disaster of displacement from the village she loved, at the hands of the Israelis and the allies who supported them. Resulting in the death of her husband by heartbreak and the disappearance of a daughter, who ended up in a refugee camp in Syria never to see her hometown again.
But once again, the filmmaker packs a dollop without being heavy handed or dramatic — she does it with a light touch, pointing us in the direction of the idea without betraying any personal agenda. She presents home movies of her childhood with mom Abbass, her various trips to Deir Hanna, where the family resettled, almost 30 km from Lake Tiberias. Family photographs and archival footage are also used here to tell the story of a family, of the strength of its women — ain’t that always the case! — and the struggle of an entire people. Displaced by a decision made thousands of miles away, by those who had no clue what Palestine was, where it was, or what it meant to be Palestinian.
Today, being Palestinian means carrying a heavy weight on one’s shoulders, the pains of all the generations that were left behind or that have never known their homeland. And what I loved most about Soualem’s film is how she shows that, yet does so through a film that flows by, quickly and seamlessly. Which makes Bye Bye Tiberias the most touching documentary I’ve watched in a very long time.
One that will remain in my heart and consciousness for years to come.
Bye Bye Tiberias world premiered in Venice as part of the Giornate degli Autori lineup, before moving to TIFF.
The film is directed by Lina Soualem, who also co-wrote it along with Nadine Naous and Gladys Joujou. Joujou edited the film, and Jean-Marie Nizan of Beall Productions produced it. Ossama Bawardi of Philistine Films and Guillame Malandrin co-produced. Music is by composer Amine Bouhafa.
The film was also supported by the Doha Film Institute and participated in this year’s Qumra industry incubator.
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All images courtesy of Giornate degli Autori, used with permission.