New Film FARHA Tells a Coming-of-Age Survival Story Set Amidst the Nakba w/ Darin J. Sallam/The Sordid History of Guantanamo Bay w/ Andy Worthington

On this edition of Parallax Views, Jordanian filmmaker Darin J. Sallam joins Parallax Views to discuss her feature-length debut film Farha. Written and directed by Sallam, Farha tells the coming-of-age story of a brave, curious young woman (played by Karam Taher in a tour-de-force acting debut) living in 1948 Palestine who dreams of going to the city, receiving an education, and becoming a teacher. Farha's life is irrevocably altered, however, when Israeli military invade her Palestinian village in a series of violent events that have become known in the Arab world as the Nakba or "The Catastrophe". Farha is a deeply moving story of survival that attempts to shed light on a story Palestinian Arabs have passed down through the generations and may well mark the first feature-length film that isn't a documentary to feature the Nakba as a key element of its story. In this conversation Darin and I discuss a number of topics including:

- Her experiences directing the film

- Working with the cast, which included such well-known actors of the Arab world as Ali Sulliman of the TV series Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan and Ashraf Barhom (The Kingdom, Paradise Now); the casting of the lead character

- The meaning of the title Farha and how it refers to not only the main character but the Arabic word for "Joy"

- The development of the movie, the difficulty getting funding, and depicting the events of the Nakba in a thoughtful manner

- The emotions that came out during the filming of the production especially amongst the Gazan refugees who served as extras in the film

- The motif of water in the movie

- The accusations of antisemitism that have been made against Farha

- Whether or not the story of Farha ends on a hopeful note

- The approach taken to depicting the Nakba in Farha; why Darin chose not to show gory violence

- Farha as a universal, humane story which can speak to many different people

- The passing down of the story of the Nakba throughout the generations and putting that story to film

- Does Darin see a bit of Farha in herself?

- The positive reactions to the film thus far

- Telling the truth

- Farha as not just a story about the Nakba but a story about love, community, loss, trauma, and memory

- Liberation and loss; the open wound of the Nakba

- Being thrust into traumatic events without a choice; surviving the trauma and living because one must do so

- Farha being submitted to the Academy Award

- And much, much more!

In the second segment of the show, journalsit Andy Worthington, author of The Guantanamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America's Illegal Prison, joins us to discuss the unsettling history of military torture and detainment at Guantanamo Bay since 2002. Guantanamo Bay has been in the news, at least within the alternative media sphere again, after former Gitmo prisoner Mansoor Adayfi claimed in an interview with Mike Prysner of The Empire Files and Eyes Left Podcast that he was tortured by U.S. 2024 Presidential hopeful Governor Ron DeSantis at the infamous military prison. This conversation is a bit interesting as when it was recorded Andy was skeptical that the timelines surrounding DeSantis' time at Guantanmo Bay lined up with Mansoor's testimony (although this is not to say that he thinks Mansoor was lying, but rather that the story needed more clarification). However, about five days after our initial conversation, Andy and I spoke again. At that point Andy had spoken with Mansoor in order to clarify the issues. This clarification appears to add more weight to Mansoor's claim and means that the DeSantis/Gitmo story merits serious investigation. 

Among the topics discussed in this conversation:

- The origins of Guantanamo Bay (alternatively known as GTMO or Gitmo) and the types of torture that went on there

- A prison designed by the George W. Bush administration in the early days of the War on Terror to detainee terrorism suspects without much interference/oversight from courts with regards to what would go on there

- Human rights abuses at Guantanamo Bay

- How was the veil of secrecy around what went on Guantanamo Bay pierced?

- The "enhanced interrogation" euphemism

- Guantanamo Bay in the Obama and Trump years

-  Why has Guantanamo Bay not been shut down despite the controversy around it?

- Obama's campaign promise to close the prison

- The question of torture's effectiveness in dealing with terrorism

- Former detainee Mansoor Adayfi's claims that Ron DeSantis, as a JAG officer, was involved in torture at Guantanamo Bay

- The Guantanamo Bay hunger strikes of 2005 (and 2006)

- Waterboarding

- And much, much more