Film: Trip Along Exodus

Today, with Meetup full of live meetings again, I decided on film again. For a change, I was thinking of heading to Reel Palestine, which is supposed to be streaming a very highly rated short film called My Neighbourhood. But wouldn't you know it, when I tested the link, it wasn't working! Never fear, there's a wealth of films out there.. instead, I decided to watch Trip Along Exodus, also available on that site - or, indeed, on YouTube! It's a documentary about the late Elias Shoufani, a council member of the PLO.

No dry documentary, this - it was made by his elder daughter, a poet, and is divided into sections, each punctuated with a snatch of poetry, some music - and the photos and video footage that appear throughout. It's kind of linear, but has no problem in jumping around in time a little. Never fear, it's not confusing - just sit back and absorb the atmosphere. The music and images give a real insight into life in the Middle East, and make this an entertaining watch.

By 'eck, he was a character! This was filmed a couple of years before his death, but he is sharp as a tack - and age gives him licence to diss all comers: although a remark towards the end of the film suggests that he was always an argumentative sort. In his day, he was regarded as the foremost authority on the Middle East. He had a PhD from Princeton, lived in the States for a while (on an Israeli passport, which was the only one he could get - as soon as he got a green card, he dispensed with the Israeli passport, for obvious reasons). Met his first wife there - it didn't last long, unfortunately, as he became more closely involved in politics, and couldn't see a role for her in the revolution.

He frequently lets rip. He left the States because they were assisting Israel to fight the Palestinians, but is also scathing about Palestinian patriotism - as he says, he's not a farmer, he has no interest in land unless as in the concept of a motherland: nationhood. So he has no time for attachment to place - indeed, he lived in several different countries, and eventually ended his days in Syria. He says, mind you, that the greatest problem is Islamic fundamentalism, and that the association of religion with politics just leads to backward thinking, and regression. Which leads him nicely onto a lengthy dismissal of Arafat, who, he says, had a "fossilised brain", and could only consider the political situation in terms of religion. Not that things in the PLO improved after his tenure: no, he says, after that, it was run by Arafat's cronies - a bunch of highwaymen and thugs.

Very much worth watching, it's also a fascinating insight into the situation in Palestine in the late 20th century. Recommended.

Same-o situation for Saturday. Funnily enough, highest on my film list now is Fleabag! (which I've already finished a season of, on Amazon Prime Video). But I'm hoping to be finished Season 2 by then, and that's all she wrote, as they say. Couldn't wait to watch it. Assuming that I am finished with that, next up - on the same platform - is The Fall. About which I hear good things.