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#04 WAITING FOR GODOT?
04/09/2005
By choosing to make a film about a weary Palestinian director in charge of auditioning for a National Palestinian Theatre with a famous TV interviewer and her cameraman, Rashid Masharawi allows us to discover the reality of a split nation (in Palestine, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon) in a refreshingly ironic way. Waiting is an absurd road movie, as the witty dialogues indicate from the beginning: indeed, 'a State without a National Theatre' makes no sense, but neither does 'a National Theatre without a State'.
Furthermore, in every refugee camp, the casting team realises that the people who wait to be auditioned are less interested in acting than in communicating with family members they have not seen for years and whom they have been waiting forever to meet again. They therefore come to ask each applicants to play that, and just wait in front of the camera, which they are unable to do, because they 'need direction', as one of the refugee points out. The absurdity of awaiting something unidentified is underlined by the half-sentences the TV presenter repeats for sound tests: 'Arafat says there should be some improvements in the near future..., the Israeli government believes a compromise is on the way...'
In Waiting, Palestine itself, just like the 'National theatre', appears as a beautiful Utopia. Outside of Palestine, the memory of it is an idealised projection. Besides, refugees in Jordan and refugees in Lebanon have a completely different life and history, the former arrived in 1967 and mixed with the locals, while the latter have been waiting since 1948, and, as they say in the end, are 'still here'. In these words like in his film, although Masharawi underlines the fallacy, he gives Waiting a profoundly hopeful resonance. As a little Lebanese girl says, 'I have a dream...'
Why did you choose this tender, yet ironic approach of a tragic situation?
I have already made about twenty movies about Palestine, from many different angles. This time, as I myself became a refugee and could not go back to my home in Ramallah, I felt like something new. Intifada after intifada, our History has been repeating itself way too much in the past fifty years, and I wanted to explain, especially to non-Arabs, why we seem to have run out of stories. I took an ironic angle because I wanted to show that we still have distance; even if everybody suffers from the situation, we still laugh, tell jokes, and live.
You obviously hope Palestinians can one day be united again and at the same time, you present Palestine as a Utopia. Isn't there a contradiction there?
There are clearly two maps of Palestine, a historical one, embellished by memories, and a humanitarian one, which shows how divided our nation is now. Since 1948, the many refugees have evolved in different ways. Still, Palestine used to be a beautiful country, with orange trees and the sea and wonderful cities, and however divided our nation can be, it does not keep us from hoping...
The film has been received with great enthusiasm for its premiere here in Venice. After all these interviews, what is the question no one has asked yet which you would like to answer?
This one! Well, no one has asked, 'why cinema?' Sure, it is impossible to be a Palestinian director and not be political, but I have made lots of experimental films about cinema itself, about art and exhibitions. I am first and foremost a filmmaker.
Bénédicte Prot
www.cineuropa.org
In the photogallery, pictures by Michele Lamanna
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