A Jordanian drama that is often cited by anti-Israel activists when trying to bolster their arguments about how brutal Israel is will be released on Netflix next month. The film has been panned by many for taking a famous holocaust story and changing the location as well as the protagonist and antagonists.
In September 2021, the premiere of the film "Farha" by Jordanian director Darin J. Sallam was held at the Toronto Film Festival. The few viewers who witnessed the period drama at this time, and in various screenings held since then at various festivals around the world, were exposed to an awful, mostly fictional plot that unfolds during the War of Independence and is presented from a one-sided Palestinian point of view.
However, starting December 1, Netflix subscribers all over the world will be able to watch the film about an Arab family during Israel’s war for independence, and also the shocking scene in it, during which IDF soldiers massacre a family of Palestinian refugees, leaving a one-year-old baby to die. In addition, Farha was chosen by the Jordanian Culture Ministry to represent the nation built on over 70% of Mandatory Palestine in the Foreign Film category for the upcoming Oscar awards.
Netflix to premier Palestinian film that compares IDF to Nazis: 'Farha' depicts 1948 events of 'the Nakba' from the perspective of a Palestinian teenage girl, and includes a scene depicting IDF soldiers cold-heartedly execute a family of… https://t.co/m7FMQf6iSU Ynet-Culture
— Jewish Community (@JComm_NewsFeeds) November 29, 2022
According to director Darin J. Sallam, the plot of Farha is 'loosely based on a true story,' as told by an anonymous Palestinian refugee who fled Israel in 1948 to Syria. Sallam, born in Kuwait and now living in Jordan’s capital of Amman, led the production in collaboration with supporting bodies from Sweden and Saudi Arabia.
When the movie first premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, it caused much outrage due to its extreme and misleading representation of history. The heroine of the film, a local girl named Farha, finds herself imprisoned after her father who is the village’s leader locks her in an attempt to protect her from the Israeli forces.
From there, in the small, dark space that serves as a hiding place for her, she looks out through cracks in the door and wall and experiences the various happenings around her. The movie’s many critics found a striking resemblance between Farha’s story to the one of Anne Frank. "Farha is becoming the Anne Frank of Arabia, where the threat comes from Israeli soldiers instead of Nazis," Swedish critic Fredrik Sahlin said.
@netflix is about to add to its platform anti-Israeli propaganda in the name of progress with the movie ‘Farha’ in which IDF soldiers are shown to heartlessly execute an entire Palestinian family, including an infant.
— Tea🦉 (@TeaOwlet) November 29, 2022
This NEVER happened, and I am DONE with Netflix.
When asked in the interview if she intended to compare Anne Frank to Farha, the director replied: "I didn't think about it when I made the film, but I can understand why people thought about the terrible story of Anne Frank. My character goes through a similar terrible journey." That comment also received criticism over the fact that the Anne Frank story was true whereas Sallam admits her story is fictional.
Many of the scenes in Farha are very hard to watch and exceed any violent image of Israel Defense Forces soldiers drawn by the Arab film industry. Despite this, as mentioned, a special committee on behalf of the Jordanian Ministry of Culture chose "Farha" as its official representative for the Oscars.
In their official statement, the Jordanian committee said: "With tremendous delicacy and elegance, Farha succeeds in presenting a special cinematic perspective on a subject that has a distinct emotional burden that has intrigued Arab filmmakers for a long time, and which makes the film of significant value on two levels of form and content.”
