“All That’s Left of You” premieres at Gateway Film Center Thursday at 7:15 p.m. Credit: Michael Napolitano | Lantern File Photo
“I am the sea / In my depths all treasures dwell / Have the divers asked about my pearls?” — Hafiz Ibrahim.
This poem is echoed throughout the quietly devastating film that is “All That’s Left of You,” which premieres in Columbus at Gateway Film Center Thursday at 7:15 p.m. The film follows generations of a Palestinian family as they navigate the hardships they’ve faced under Israel’s occupation, beginning in 1948 with the Nakba and Israel’s establishment and ending in 2022.
It’s the latest from Palestinian American filmmaker and actress Cherien Dabis, who took inspiration from the different generations of her own family to create the profoundly important film that is “All That’s Left of You.”
“There was enough inspiration there that, you know, the film still feels very personal to me,” Dabis said. “And while that’s the story of one Palestinian family, it’s really the story of all Palestinian families. I think that also kind of helped give me a sense of objectivity because I knew that the story, the emotional experience this family’s going through, is the experience of so many people, you know?”
The film opens in 1988 at a protest in the West Bank, where Noor (Muhammad Abed Elrahman), the teenage son of Salim (Saleh Bakri) and Hanan (Dabis), is present. After Israeli soldiers open fire against the demonstrators, Noor ducks into a car. A shot of a bullet-shattered windshield lingers, then cuts to a close-up of his mother.
“I’m not here to blame you, I’m here to tell you who is my son,” Hanan says into the camera. “But for you to understand, I must tell you what happened to his grandfather.”
It’s then that the story begins to take off, bringing viewers back to 1948 with the story of Noor’s grandparents as they deal with the Nakba and Israel’s occupation. We see a wholesome family — Sharif and Munira are loving parents to their three kids, residing in a lavish home in Jaffa complete with a beautiful orange grove — live in fear as the world they know begins to crumble at the hands of militant forces.
It is deeply moving to see the resilience of these families who have had everything they cherish ripped out of their hands. Even in the face of danger, Sharif will not leave his home, defying what he sees as Israel’s goal to clear them out and take their land.
A time jump brings us to a refugee camp, where Sharif’s son, Salim, is now grown and has a family of his own. Sharif is still alive, but is a shell of who he used to be. He goes on and on about the war, his beautiful home in Jaffa and the “sons of b******” who took it away, disconnected from the present world, but memories of his past as sharp as the day they were made.
On shaping the character of Sharif, Dabis said she partially drew inspiration from her own father.
“This character who, as he’s gotten older, has become more and more disillusioned at the worsening situation and angrier, and you know, his health has suffered as a result of everything he’s been through,” Dabis said. “That was inspired by my own father, and also just how the identities of these characters is shaped by everything happening around them in Palestine.”
Hanan, the mother, is arguably the strongest performance in the film. Without giving anything away, her performance will pull at your heartstrings until they snap — until you truly feel her hurt in its entirety. It’s raw and it’s real; you feel what she feels, you cry when she cries.
At two hours and 25-minutes, the film is spent rooting for the kindest, most loving family, knowing you won’t get the happy ending you desire. It’s bittersweet.
One thing that really stands out about the film isn’t just the authentically heartbreaking performances by the cast, it’s the way their hurt is portrayed visually. Through symmetric and asymmetric framing, color theory and camera movements, the film is able to tell the story beyond just dialogue.
When asked about the significance of the film’s composition, Dabis said she worked closely with the film’s cinematographer, Christopher Aoun, to plan a cohesive and meaningful visual style.
“[At the beginning of the film] the world is stable [and] the camera is more still to kind of reflect that stability,” Dabis said. “As the film goes on … their quality of life has just plummeted and they’ve gone from this beautiful house with the arches that were very symmetrical, and you know, really beautiful compositions — they’ve gone from that to something that is crumbling … there’s far less stability, the colors are more superficial and poppy and there’s not as much symmetry.”
The film received critical acclaim after premiering at Sundance Film Festival and Telluride Film Festival, making its way to the Oscars shortlist for Best International Film. Though it did not receive the official nomination, the story is not reliant on awards to know its impact; the true award is the way that it’s connected with people universally.
Dabis said she’s received messages of support from all kinds of people.
“It’s been deeply, deeply humbling, gratifying and just, it’s been so beautiful,” Dabis said. “Both seeing my own community’s reactions, like the Palestinian community who, in so many ways, see themselves reflected and see time periods of our history that we’ve never seen before in cinema … another really profound reaction that I’ve gotten is that ‘You broke my heart and then you healed it. You broke my heart and then you put it back together.’”
After evacuating Palestine just two weeks before filming due to the events on Oct. 7, 2023, filming was prolonged from two to three months to 11. Dabis said the hardships in the production process, paired with her experience playing Hanan, became a learning experience.
“This movie in a way was an exploration of my own intergenerational trauma,” Dabis said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if I look back on this film years from now and think, ‘Oh, something in me healed from making that and taking it out into the world.”
“All That’s Left of You” is a must-see.
Rating: 5/5
