Khaled Jarrar

He had just arrived from Paris, from his first solo-show in a gallery in the French gallery. He had exhibited the Palestinian Free State motive stamps from different countries that he had let produce, another piece of art happening from the side of the Palestinian artist, who is making himself a name outside his country in art circles. Talking about Paris, he also renamed Place de la République to Place de Hana Shalabi, to make us aware of the case of the Palestinian woman, who has hungerstriked for 38 days against the occupying country that has denied a courtcase to her and other Palestinians who were released as an exchange (!) for the Israeli soldier, Gilat Shalit, who was in Hamas custody for five years. The actions of visual artist activist Jarrar can be googled and there are lots og YouTube clips to find.

We met at the office of Idiomfilms in Ramallah to see a first draft of Jarrar’s first documentary, previously written about here. We watched a 75 mins. cut of a film that with its non-aggressive approach gives the viewer a unique account of the climbers, big and small, old and young, who go to Jerusalem illegally. To work first of all. It uses a non-linear structure, it has many angles and stylistical elements that wonderfully surprise you as a viewer, who is used to strong films in all genres, aggressive against the Israeli occupation. You have sometimes a clear laugh when you see the different ways of climbing, sometimes you laugh because of the absurdity, and sometimes you are moved and feel angry: this can not be true, this is not civilisation 2012! But it is.

The film is in post-production, money lacks for that part, applications have been sent to Sundance Documentary Fund and Tribeca… Festival people who read this, watch out for a fine film, well a more than a fine film is coming up this year by an amazing artist. Refreshing with that inspiration.

Khaled Jarrar: The Infiltrators (working title). Palestine, 2012. In post-production.