A house in Jerusalem, interview with filmmaker Muayad Elayyan

Stories from Palestine

Recently the kids and I watched the film 'A house in Jerusalem' by filmmaker Muayad Elayyan who happens to be a far cousin and friend of my husband Tariq. Although he told me that he had a small role as an extra in this film, which he's had in all Muayad's films, I did NOT recognize him. Turns out the policeman in the scene when Rebecca wanders off from the summer school activity in Jerusalem and ends up with the Palestinian puppeteer, is MY husband!! We only realized at the end of the film when we saw his name in the end credits, that we had missed out on recognizing him. It was a hilarious moment when we played it again and then figured out the policeman was Tariq!
Muayad visits Singer Cafe regularly so it wasn't hard to catch him for a podcast interview. After his earlier films: 'The reports on Sarah and Saleem' and 'Love Theft and Other Entanglements' this film 'A House in Jerusalem' is the latest. It came out in January 2023 and it is still being shown at film festivals around the world.
In this film a British Jewish girl named Rebecca comes with her father to Jerusalem after her mother has died in a tragic car accident. Her grandfather has a house in West Jerusalem where they can live. They are both overwhelmed with the trauma of losing the mother, but the father is trying to make things work in their new environment. Rebecca explores the garden, finds an old well, manages to open it and finds a traditional rag doll in the well. This leads her to connect with the ghost of the young Palestinian girl Rasha. What follows is the story of what happened to this girl Rasha during the 1948 Nakba when the family was forcibly displaced from their home.
In the podcast interview with Muayad we touch on many aspects of the film and on Muayad's personal family history. His both grandparents were displaced from their homes. The theme of intergenerational trauma both on an individual level as well as on the collective level are very present in the film.
Muayad could never have imagined that his film would come out just months before the 7th of October and before the ethnic cleansing campaign in the Gaza strip. "There are many parallels to what happened in 1948 and what is happening in Gaza."
If you want to follow up with news of screenings of the film then this is the facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ahouseinjerusalem

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