A Palestinian patriarch has moved his wife, son and two daughters to an abandoned settlement (former Israeli military outpost?) in a desolate valley, where they survive by (illegally) cutting down trees and burning them to charcoal, which they sell. The patriarch has sought this isolation, at least in part, to escape from the public shame brought about by his older daughter's "disgrace" (rape?) years earlier. The family's bleak existence is made far worse by the father's obsessive, brutal and dictatorial character.
To accept the premises of the film, you are required to suspend credibility. How could these people avoid discovery when they build huge fires at night in an area patrolled by the Israeli Army? Why would any of the family members tolerate the patriarch's abuses? But the largest question posed by this film, in my opinion, goes beyond the issue of plot credibility: Why was it made? The fact that the director is Palestinian does not prove that this film is anything other than it seems: an Israel-sponsored hatchet job, intended to reinforce stereotyped notions of Palestinians as brutal, uncivilized and incapable of self-government. "Atash" ("thirst") should make you thirst for an honest, realistic film about contemporary Palestinian life and Israeli oppression.
Barry Freed
To accept the premises of the film, you are required to suspend credibility. How could these people avoid discovery when they build huge fires at night in an area patrolled by the Israeli Army? Why would any of the family members tolerate the patriarch's abuses? But the largest question posed by this film, in my opinion, goes beyond the issue of plot credibility: Why was it made? The fact that the director is Palestinian does not prove that this film is anything other than it seems: an Israel-sponsored hatchet job, intended to reinforce stereotyped notions of Palestinians as brutal, uncivilized and incapable of self-government. "Atash" ("thirst") should make you thirst for an honest, realistic film about contemporary Palestinian life and Israeli oppression.
Barry Freed