Released last year, Inch'Allah (Arabic for "God willing") takes place mostly in the Palestinian West Bank. The main character, Chloe, is a young Canadian obstetrician working in a UN clinic in a refugee camp in the West Bank.
The film is driven less by plot and more by situation and cinematography, though a narrative runs underneath, eventually making its presence known.
As a result, Chloe is not so much the main character as she is a guide, taking the viewer on a tour through various aspects of the Palestine-Israel conflict. In so doing, she registers, often non-verbally, the effects these experiences have on her.
The film depicts Palestinian life with a gritty realism seldom seen in cinema. The director, Anais Barbeau-Lavalette, is not shy (at all) about presenting the lack of symmetry in the conflict's day-to-day reality. One is shown with unflinching directness the hardship, humiliation, and anger of life under foreign military occupation. With the exception of Chloe's friend Ava, the Israelis in the film are basically two-dimensional: either disinterested civilians or unsympathetic soldiers. Ava is doing her military service, and is in moral conflict as she pulls checkpoint duty; these misgivings and remorse are not uncommon among young Israelis serving in the IDF.
It's difficult to evaluate movies like Inch'Allah. What are the criteria? In reviewing films merely offering an art experience, one judges them accordingly. When the subject matter, however, is a real political conflict - one that usually receives skewed treatment - an art experience is possible, but one ends up judging the movie based on presentation, accuracy, and fairness. One cannot, or should not, simply pretend these issues are not there - proclaiming "it's just a movie" - and assess the film as if watching Star Wars or The Wizard of Oz. That said, I would recommend this movie for people who are, to some degree, interested in the context.
In terms of artistry and filmmaking, Inch'Allah is nicely shot, tightly edited, and well acted. In terms of historical fidelity, I found myself repeatedly nodding in the affirmative, recalling personal experiences I've had in the Palestinian territories. The storytelling is impressionistic, yet works fairly well in this mode. It's the ending that is hard to process. I've seen similar in similar movies, but something here felt heavy and forced. Perhaps that's the point. But be that as it may, the ending, like the rest of the film, is at least historically sound and well crafted.
http://www.inchallah-lefilm.com/en
