When I Saw You dir. by Annemarie Jacir (review)

When I Saw You is political at every level: from director Annemarie Jacir's decision to finance the film almost exclusively with Arab funding sources to her casting of a thirteen-year-old adolescent from the Irbid Refugee Camp as the film's leading character.¹ Moreover, at the level of plot, the film's politics go far beyond a simple denunciation of Israel's crimes. While the entire premise is indeed framed by the Zionist settler-colonialist project, When I Saw You refuses to draw easy binaries, and Israel is not the only enemy that the Palestinians face. The film dares audiences to turn a critical eye upon certain Palestinian traditions, social practices, and even forms of resistance. In short, When I Saw You's treatment of exile, a common theme in Palestinian cinema, is unique in how the film problematizes Palestinian responses to it.

When I Saw You follows the story of Tarek (Mahmoud Asfa), an eleven-year-old Palestinian boy who has been forced into exile in Jordan with his mother Ghaydaa (Ruba Blal) in the wake of Israel's June 1967 conquest of East Jerusalem and the West Bank. In the confusion and chaos of war, the pair was separated from Tarek's father, and the young boy spends his days watching for new arrivals to the refugee camp, hoping to spot his missing parent amongst them. Tarek does not adjust well to his new surroundings; he complains about the food, gets kicked out of school despite his obvious mathematical abilities, and seems to have trouble making friends. Fed up with refugee life, Tarek decides to simply go home. One day, in defiance of all of those instructing him to wait, he sneaks away, determined to wait no more. Taking charge of his own fate, he begins walking back to Palestine. For Tarek, liberation begins now.

When I Saw You's focus on exile grew out of very particular circumstances. Shortly after completing her first feature, Salt of This Sea, Jacir attempted to return home to Ramallah from travels abroad, but the Israeli Border Police barred her entry into Palestine. An Israeli government official later told Jacir's attorney that she had been deemed a "security problem," and she was subsequently turned away from the border seven more times, even for her own wedding.² Even though Jacir, who was born in Bethlehem but grew up in Saudi Arabia, had been travelling in and out of the West Bank her entire life, this door was suddenly closed to her. She found herself in exile and consequently relocated to Amman. Describing these developments in a 2011 interview, Jacir explained:

I live in Jordan because it's as close as I can get to Palestine right now. […] Being so close, in Amman, has not made it easier, only more difficult, more painful. A short drive and I can see Palestine from here. Over the valley, I see the hills, even recognize the cities. My friends, my family, my apartment in Ramallah are there, but I can no longer reach them. Palestine is becoming a memory, and I struggle to hold the visuals, the reality of my life there, as close to me as I can.³

It was out of this unexpected situation that Jacir conceived of her second feature film project, but rather than simply indulging in nostalgia by romanticizing previous generations of Palestinian refugees, Jacir crafted a film that approaches exile with a sophisticated and distinctly critical lens.

When I Saw You is spatially divided into two camps: a camp of refugees (the fictitious Harir Refugee Camp) and a camp of fedayeen (Palestinian commandoes). Everyone in both camps aspires to end their exile, but returning to Palestine remains an elusive impossibility. While the inhabitants of the refugee camp are waiting for official channels to arrange their return, the fedayeen are waiting for a signal from their commanders. Despite their differences, the refugees and the fedayeen share this trait in common; both groups are stuck in Jordan, and these...