Al-hadiya (2020) – 3/5

Life’s a fridge

„Al-hadiya“ or „The Present“ is a live action short film that was shot in 2019, released in 2020 and managed an Oscar nomination in 2021. It is a co-production between „Occupied Palestinian Territory“ (according to imdb) and the United Kingdom and the inclusion of the latter probably made it much easier for the film to make all these waves on the awards circuit. I mentioned the Oscar nomination already, but it also won a BAFTA and more than 30 other awards while being nominated for more than another 20, so in total the film scored over 50 nominations. Quite massive. It runs for over 24 minutes and was shot in Bethlehem. The director was Farah Nabulsi and now in 2023 she has her first full feature film out and we will see how many waves this one will make and if she perhaps is even going to direct films in Hollywood or Europe at some point in the future. Nabulsi also wrote the screenplay for this short film together with Hind Shoufani. For the most part, it is a father-daughter story and the two are out to buy a present for his wife / her mother. This may not be a big thing in many other countries, but here so many obstacles are on the way because of the situation. In the light of the recent Israel/Palestine conflict, this film will maybe also get some new attention again.

The crucial situations basically take place then the man and his child cross the border to het to the story where they want to buy the present and also buy some groceries. On the way to the store, the man is separated from his girl and put in a cage like an animal and so is the girl. They can still see each other, but that is it. After a while, they are allowed to cross, but we realize the girl peed herself because she was so scared. This is maybe the saddest moment of the film and showed us how hard it is for a child to grow up in this scenario. After having bought the present, a fridge, they reach the border again and there is an issue that the fridge is too big to be scanned according to security protocol or so, so was it all for nothing then? Go and watch yourself how it unfolds because the film ends moments later. And even if it is a bit of a spoiler, let me say that there is a somewhat happy ending. After some real drama where you could even be worried that a character might get shot or even killed. The film is pretty much a back-and-forth when it comes to emotions. There are some moments involving the daughter where she just has a life like kids growing up in safer areas of the planet. One would be when she storms into his room in the beginning because she is so enthusiastic about joining her dad in their quest (it really is one) to buy the present and another moment is when they are at the store and we see the girl get a little crown as a gift from her dad, so she feels like a princess and is happy or at least happier again after what happened before.

If we look at the father, we can say that it may be one of the most memorable portrayals of a caring father you will see in a while. It is very subtle at times how he comforts her, but even when there’s more in-your-face moments like the girl forgetting her jacket, he just comforts her and finds the right words and keeps her warm nonetheless. But he is not angry at her or so because he knows what a troubling day it is for her, but also for himself. He seems to have his own struggles with the painkillers he is taking. On one occasion, I was wondering if he might have a deadly illness or something, but there are no real indicators for that either. All we know is that he is not healthy. I am not sure if all viewers will like the tough escalation at the end, but even if you don’t (and I was not super big on it either), then I am sure most people will still appreciate the overall outcome of the movie. There was not really a single moment where I felt that maybe I could not give it a positive recommendation. There were maybe also one or only two moments during which I briefly thought about giving it an even more enthusiastic recommendation, but overall I guess calling it a decent film is just enough and right-on. I was a bit confused at the beginning with the changes of location when we see the man outside in the dark, then during a room with (too) many other people and finally then in bed at home, but I guess it means that he worked really long and thus slept equally long afterwards. So his wife’s comment is maybe not the nicest. In any case, he was out there for a reason in the beginning of the film. Okay that is it. Thumbs-up here and I suggest you go see it. You will need subtitles though unless you are fluent in both English and Arabic.