Chi Film Fest: Palestine's Oscar submission "Gaza Mon Amour"
Sunday, October 25, 2020 at 1:00PM
by Nick Taylor
I felt much warmer towards Gaza Mon Amour at its conclusion than when it began. The gradual expansion of its story and stabilization of its aesthetic strategies are what got me on its side. At its core, Gaza Mon Amour is buoyed by the mutual, barely spoken ardor between fisherman Issa (Salim Daw) and dressmaker Siham (Hiam Abbass), but the script gives near-equal attention to their work lives and the friends and family members that populate their lives. It’s an admirable scope, though one might wonder when Tarzan and Arab Nasser, the twin sibling writer/director duo behind Palestine’s International Film submission, are going to move their story forward. It’s not clear for the first half hour whether the film will find itself or collapse entirely...
As it turns out, Gaza mon Amour gets kickstarted with the arrival of an outside element - while Issa is fishing he captured an ancient, life-sized, phallically impressive statue of Apollo in his net. Issa hides this treasure in his truck and safes it away in his home, spooked by his discovery yet suddenly endowed with enough confidence to meet Sahim at her shop and . . . . ask if she would hem his pants. Which is still a good first step! And she says yes, despite running a women's clothing store, telling Isa to come back in two days. Victory!
Too bad he’s put in custody by the state police soon after. He and his Apollo are behind bars, though only Issa gets to walk out after spending several days in a crowded cell. While Issa deals with all of that, we spend a comparable amount of time with Sahim. Her economic struggles and relationship with her daughter Leila (Maisa Abd Elhadi) may not be as novel as Issa’s journey with Apollo, but all of a sudden her life is more tangible and lived-in.
Daw and Abbass both contribute gently captivating performances, making their will-they-won’t-they interactions mature even in their awkwardness. You might get annoyed with how the slightest interruption from the outside world seems to stop them in their tracks, but you root for them, especially as the film fleshes out a world that might cut their partnership down before it has the chance to start.
It also helps that the camera and editing eschew some of their more conspicuously “artsy” impulses with framing for the middle passages, letting us learn about the characters rather than telling us how to feel about them, and settling into a more modest style that never feels indifferent. Those impulses doesn’t vanish completely, and several shots in the last ten minutes are very overdetermined in their desired effect on the audience. Gaza Mon Amour is at its best when it’s at its most understated, though I admit to wanting a version of this that had a little more ambition for itself. Adam, Morocco’s International Film submission last year, managed to tell a consciously “small” story of two people trying to get by in a semi-dangerous political environment while boasting a clearer picture of that environment, even stronger performances, and a rich sense of visual storytelling. It’s hard to be too unforgiving about Gaza Mon Amour’s inadequacies, but holding up its praises too high feels equally excessive. C+
Oscar Chances: This might fill someone’s sweet spot for small, engaging, contemporary romance between two sixty year olds (a genre we could always see more films tackle), but I have a hard time expecting this film to hold the Academy’s attention.
Reader Comments (2)
Nice review, Nick. It's one that does the movie justice.
I will say though: there's a shot in this film that is one of the funniest I've seen all year, involving a camera on the floor. I giggled so much.
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