Unable to bear the gossip surrounding his disgraced daughter, an Arab patriarch rules his family with an iron fist. However, their lives change radically when water is illegally diverted onto their land.
Atash
A Film by: Tawfik Abu Wael
(Israel, 2004, 115 Minutes, Color, Arabic, English subtitles, Cast: Hussein Yassin Mahajne, Amal Bweerat, Roba Blal, Jamila Abu Hussein, Ahamed Abed Elrani )
A family of five, their two goats and donkey, live in the middle of nowhere far from their village home. They earn a meager living by producing and selling charcoal made from the surrounding trees.
The father and son are the only ones who ever return to their native village. The Mother and two daughters have not left this place since the day they abandoned their home, 10 years ago.
One day the father decides to provide running water for the family by illegally diverting water onto their land. The three women recoil from the idea but the teenage son obeys submissively - anything to be allowed to continue attending school.
The water surging through the pipe parallels the surging resentment the family feels towards the father. He brought them to this place against their will and they know the reason they left their home is also the reason they can never return, but the newly free-flowing water on their land re-awakens the instinctive desire for freedom they have been repressing all these years.
AWARDS, FESTIVALS & SCREENINGS
• Award of the Israeli Film Academy - Best Cinematography Asaf Sudri
• Cannes Film Festival- Critics Week
• Jerusalem Film Festival- Best Israeli Feature- Tawfik Abu Wael
https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/atash-film-review-by-ben-sillis
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