The first feature from Palestinian-British writer-director Farah Nabulsi (an Oscar-nominee for her short The Present) is a potent thriller about an English teacher, Basem (Saleh Bakri) charting a course of smart resistance to Israeli occupiers in the West Bank. (The background here is very similar to the picture painted in the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land). In a horrifying turn of events, Basem witnesses the murder of a teenager by a settler. While the subsequent investigation rolls slowly towards a foregone conclusion, the victim’s younger brother thirsts for vengeance, while the teacher is caught up in a parallel kidnapping case involving a young American soldier.
Lent enormous gravitas by the palpably worldweary performance of Saleh Bakri (The Time That Remains), The Teacher grounds its politics in authentic emotion and vindicates the filmmakers’ courageous decision to shoot for three months on location in and around Nablus.
Gripping and full of tension, The Teacher not only makes for a wonderful cinematic experience, but poses some all-important questions the wider world has seemingly avoided answering for too long.
Grace Dodd, Little White Lies
Bakri’s sensitivity and intelligence command every scene.
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
Farah Nabulsi
Saleh Bakri, Imogen Poots, Muhammad Abed Elrahman, Stanley Townsend, Paul Herzberg, Mahnoud Bakri
UK/Palestine
2023
In Arabic, English and Hebrew with English subtitles
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Credits
Screenwriter
Farah Nabulsi
Cinematography
Gilles Porte
Original Music
Alex Baranowski
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