screen-writer and director Anais Barbeau-Lavalette must surely count as the most emotionally draining of all.
As the film opens, we see a young child admiring some birds in a number of cages. Behind him, we see various tables and chairs on the pavement of a cafe-bar with Chloé (Evelyne Brochu) relaxing with her friend Ava (Sivan Levy). Then suddenly we hear the noise of a loud explosion and we see frightened doves flying in the air against the blue sky. Later that evening, we see Chloé walking in the cobbled street of Ramallah half drunk with Ava asking her to say something while she takes her photo on her i-phone. Ava did not know what to say. Chloé told her to say "Hello Palestine". She tried but Chloé said she did not it say it with the right tone and she had to do it again. When it's morning, we see Chloé hurriedly grabbing something to eat whilst her mother in Canada watches her through the web-cam of her computer notebook. Then she goes downstairs and gives a knock at the door of the floor below. Then Ava comes out. Chloé drives her to work and then goes to work herself. We learn that Ava is an Israeli soldier assigned to check the identity of Palestinians with permits to cross the city barrier into the Israeli side of the town of Ramallah and that Chloé is a Canadian doctor working for a UN maternity clinic on the Palestinian side.
We see the barely furnished clinic being searched by Israeli soldiers with little ceremony. Then we see Chloé visiting one of her patients Rand (Sabrina Ouazani) engaged in picking out scraps from a rubbish dump along with some Palestinian children, one of whom was talking into an old sports shoe as if it were a mobile phone and making conversation with an imaginary conversation partner and then throwing the shoe to Chloé who pretended talk into it in response to the child.
As the film develops, we see the family of Rand, whose brother was working for a Palestinian organization pushing for Palestinian independence, machine-gun carrying Israeli soldiers constantly making random ID checks on Palestinian people, occasional terrorist attacks or Israelian attack on the Palestinian refugee camp or quarters, how the media merely reported attacks on Israelian soldiers but never how Israelian armored jeeps would run over one of the rubbish picking children who attacked it with stones, how Rand who lost her child after being forced to give birth upon one of the check points and whose husband was given a 25 year jail term for terrorist activity became a suicide bomber, how Chloé made use of her friendship with Ava to get Rand's family an 8 hour pass to cross over to the Israeli side of the town so that they could visit their former home which had been reduced to rubble by the Israelis, how her mother and she were so happy to be able to finally reminisce about old times but how Rand's brother Faysal was complaining about how they could only visit their own home with the help of a foreign white woman.
Anais Barbeau-Lavalett narrated the story almost as if it were a documentary but mainly from the point of view of Chloé who tried everything within her powers to help Rand and her family but how futile her efforts were in a situation where there was violence, suspicions, and vengeance on both sides of the wall separating the Palestinians from the Israelian side of the town. As the film ends,we see from a long shot how one of the Palestinian kids had finally succeeded in knocking a hole in the wall separating the two races and putting his eye through the hole on the wall separating the two sides of the town and saying how he could see a small tree growing by a big tree on the Israelian side of the town and how Chloé decided that she had enough of the violence when just before her suicide bomb attack, Rand accused her of sleeping with now with her brother and now with some Israeli despite everything she risked her life she did to help her. We see how desperate Rand was: she had lost everything dear to her, her home, her brother and her child. The war had made inhuman because she was daily exposed to inhumanity.
It's a film not expressly about the Arab-Israelian political conflict but one feels that everything happened within a context of mutual aggravation, hatred, violence and suspicion. Of course, we see the injustice caused to the Palestinians who were subject to arbitrary ID and body searches and how they were forced to live in conditions of utter poverty and how they were prevented from even visiting their own former homes. What is most distressing is the sense of impotence in the face of such inveterate hatred and suspicion on both sides. Rand said she preferred to die with dignity rather live in shame and forced acceptance of injustices to her people. Anais Barbeau-Lavalette showed us why. What is most disheartening is that one really does not see any hope that the situation could ever improve. We only know that violence is not a good solution but have no idea how the complex issues could be resolved. Of course, we all know that theoretically love is best balm for healing past hurts but is it realistic to expect that the Palestinians and Jews will be prepared to change their emotions from one of mutual hatred to one of mutual love after years of mutual suspicions and misunderstandings in the context of daily confrontation? One leaves the cinema with a heavy heart. Perhaps the film is so moving because it's presented in such a matter of fact way, almost as if it were the most natural thing in the world that all the violence and counter violence could not have been otherwise. The title of the film Inch Allah is a favorite expression amongst Arabs meaning "God willing" . It's obvious that it expresses the irony that the solution to the kind of problem we see is beyond human ability. What is even more ironical that both the Arabs and the Israelis worship the the very same God, the God of Abraham! It's a searing indictment of the senseless violence one sees in the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Brochu's and Ouazani 's acting were excellent as were the stunning camera work of Philippe Lavalette who would often shoot close up of the head of Chloé against the light, giving a halo effect. He captures the desolation of the life on the rubbish dump right below the divisive town wall with repeated long shots as if it were a picture from hell itself. The film was nominated at the 2013 Canadian Screen Awards for 5 awards, including nominations for Best Picture, Best Actress in a Leading Role (Brochu), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Ouazani), Best Cinematography (Philippe Lavalette) and Best Editing (Sophie Leblond). It had already got FIPRESCI Prize for the Panorama section of the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival.
the following u-tube discussion on the latest Palestian-Israeli issue was brought to my attention by fellow internet google+ user Gaidal Cain
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