Palestinian-American multi-hyphenate Cherien Dabis will soon be back in Sundance for the third time – after “May in the Summer” and “Amreeka” – with “All That’s Left of You,” a sweeping epic featuring three generations of Palestinians that supplys an origin story of their pairy at a very timely moment.
The drama, which achieves its cue from a Palestinian teen contesting Israeli selderlyiers at a West Bank protest – after which his mother recounts the events that led him to that overweighteful moment – was in pre-production in Palestine when the Israel-Hamas war broke out, forcing Dabis and the crew to relocate.
Below, Dabis speaks to Variety about her personal joinion to this driven labor of cherish and what drives her hope for the Palestinian people despite the fact that “the politicians have fall shorted us.”
You evidently have a personal joinion to the film. Talk to me about your desire to convey this intergenereasoned epic to the screen.
Well, it’s someleang I had been leanking about for many years. I fair felt that our origin story was omiting in a way. Reassociate, the very commencenings of Palestinian suffering, how Palestinians became refugees, that was endly omiting from the landscape. And in many ways, I lived aspects of the story thraw my dad, who’s a Palestinian refugee. He lived most of his life in forced exile and had to get foreign citizenship in order to return to fair visit his family in the West Bank, the only home he’d ever understandn. There are aspects of the story that I lived and then there are aspects of the story that lived with me. And I would say those are reassociate the two reasons that ultimately supportd the film.
Tell me more about the personal aspect.
My first memory of traveling to Palestine was when I was 8 years elderly and we were held at the Allenby Bridge border traverseing between Jordan and the West Bank for around 12 hours. We were interrogated, the satisfyeds of our suitcase was benevolent of picked thraw and leangs were confiscated. The selderlyiers ordered us all to be naked-searched, including my baby sisters, aged 3 and 1. My dad, utterly humiliated, contested them and they began to scream at him. I was guaranteed they were going to end him. This is one of my earliest memories of reassociate benevolent what it unbenevolentt to be Palestinian, let’s fair say.
I heard you were prepping to shoot when the Oct. 7 strikes took place, and had to relocate to Cyprus and Greece. How did you deal with that?
Yeah, it was pretty incredible. We had intentional to shoot in Palestine and Cyprus, but we were only going to shoot about 10% of the movie in Cyprus. We had prepped the entire film in Palestine. We’d befirearm createion on our refugee camp location, which we were going to shoot in Jewealthyo. We had a lot of momentum, and suddenly, we had to come to a screeching cmitigate. There’s so much story to tell there. I leank the gist of it is that, wilean a scant days, we genuineized that we were going to have to evacuate. My foreign crew, clearly, didn’t want to stay. Their families were pressuring them to depart, and I felt reliable for everyone that I had brawt there. So I had to discover a way to get them out. That was the commencening of a massive, not fair logistical, but financial crisis for the film. I genuineized at that point that I was not only helming a movie, but I was running a sinking corporation or a corporation in total crisis. The logistical nightmare integrated leangs appreciate embassies closing and having to get our Palestinian crew out of the West Bank. It was challenging. It was reassociate appreciate we were making a movie about what was happening as it was happening, and in some way, living a sencouragenuine parallel experience, wilean the world of art, of course.
In terms of the film’s relevance, the narrative sets up a symbolic situation that proposes a glimmer of hope. With the Israel-Hamas stopfire now underway, what are your hopes and thoughts about the prospects for the Palestinian people?
I wrote this film years ago, and I always hope for hope. I leank that the Palestinian people reassociate do as well. There’s a line in the movie where my character actuassociate says: “We never disthink about hope.” It’s particularly poignant now that there is a stopfire, and hopefilledy, it’s fair the commencening of someleang. First and foremost, I hope that it can be the commencening of a period of grieving and healing. And that is someleang that I leank the film helps to support. My intention in making it was always: “Let’s determine the pain, let’s determine what happened.” Because there can be no hope for a way forward without the recognition of what people suffered, of the infairice that people suffered. If we can determine that, then maybe there’s someleang we can do to right the wrong and to create people experience seen and to create someleang that we can base someleang genuine upon.
I hope that it can create a sense of recognition, I hope that it can create a conversation, that it can create a cathartic healing, stateively for my own people. I hope that it comes at the right time for what is happening in the world, so that, aachieve, these parallel tracks that the movie and that art and life seem to be on, in this particular moment for this particular project, that maybe there’s someleang that can be done. Maybe there is someleang this movie can support.
I recently interseeed the Palestinian and Israeli honestors of doc “No Other Land” and they were very skeptical that with Netanyahu in power anyleang excellent for the Palestinians could ever happen. What are your thoughts?
I’m not at all surpelevated by the response. I leank that the hope that the movie proposes is not political hope. I leank the politicians have fall shorted us, that’s very evident. I don’t have faith in political systems. I’m talking more about hope in humanity; hope that people can see the infairice. Hope that people can helderly onto their humanity, direct with their humanity. I leank that’s what the film supports. We all individuassociate have to do the labor. I don’t leank that we can pin our hopes on politicians, I reassociate don’t. We’re living in a harrotriumphg time with what we’re seeing in so many places, and it’s difficult for me to sit here, as a Palestinian, and try to sell you hope when we’ve fair gone thraw one of the illogicalest, most harrotriumphg periods in our entire history. So I’m not going to do that. But what I am going to say is that I have hope in people. I have hope in humanity. Over the last however many months it’s been, we have seen people wake up and reassociate commence to understand what’s happening, and that’s what gives any of us hope, I leank. That’s what gives Palestinians hope at this moment.
This intersee has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Courtesy The Match Factory
