Farha

Farha (2021)

Palestine, 1948. After the withdrawal of the British occupiers, tensions rise between Arabs and Jews. Meanwhile, Farha, the smart daughter of the mayor of a small village, unaware of the coming tragedy, dreams of going to study in the big city.

Date of release
2021-09-14
TMDB
7.2 / 10 (96)
Runtime
1h 32m
Genres
Drama, History, War
Director
Darin J. Sallam

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Awards: 1 · Nominations: 1. Including: Asia Pacific Screen Award for Best Youth Feature Film

Farha is a 2021 internationally co-produced historical drama film written and directed by Darin J. Sallam. The film depicts a Palestinian girl's coming-of-age experience during the Nakba, the 1948 displacement of Palestinians from their homeland. Sallam based the screenplay on a true story that she was told as a child about a girl named Radieh. It premiered at the Toronto Film Festival on 14 September 2021.

Production

Farha was written and directed by Darin J. Sallam—her first feature-length film. Sallam's own family also fled from Palestine to Jordan in 1948. The film is based on a true story recounted to Sallam's mother by a friend, living as a refugee in Syria, about her experience during the Nakba in which hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were expelled from their homeland.

The film was produced by TaleBox, based in Jordan, and co-produced by Laika Film & Television and Chimney, both based in Sweden. Deema Azar and Ayah Jardaneh are credited as producers along with William Johansson Kalén as co-producer.

This film is the first on-screen appearance for the lead actor Karam Taher. Sallam said that, when casting the titular role, she was "looking for a girl that [she] could stay with for 52 minutes inside a room". Taher's initial audition did not go well. Sallam said, "[Taher] was shy [...] But what really stayed with me was her face: she had a very specific face and very expressive eyes.

Farha was filmed in Jordan with cinematography by Rachelle Aoun. Sallam stated in an interview that "[s]ome of the crew members were crying behind the monitor while shooting, remembering their families and their stories, and the stories they heard from their grandparents".

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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