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In one scene the heroine, Fatenah, is seen ashamedly unbuttoning her dress before a female Israeli soldier, revealing her breasts which were removed in a failed attempt to halt cancer. Here, the heroine flunks the security check and isnt allowed to enter Israel for treatment.
Filmmakers said they used animation to make their grim subject more appealing, weaving a Mideast tale whose characters crisscross the Arab-Jewish divide. In the film an Israeli human rights activist becomes Fatenahs close friend and a love story between Fatenah and a Gazan man threads the plot together. The film turns the territory into harshly colored scenes an Israeli checkpoint, crowded buildings and the sea.
Director Ahmad Habash, a West Bank resident, couldnt see most of the scenes he needed to create for the film. He paid a Gazan photographer to snap pictures of the coastal territory. For Israeli hospital scenes, Habash used photos from a Web site. I wished I could have gone there (to Gaza and Israel), Habash said. I think I would have sketched the characters better.
Fatenah opens Wednesday in the West Bank city of Ramallah. It is the first animated film for commercial release made in the Palestinian territories, on a budget of $60,000 from the World Health Organization. Producers are sending it to film festivals abroad. The film highlights the strides of Palestinian filmmakers, who have made six feature-length movies in the past two years; despite no local funding, few experienced professionals and Israels closure system which restricts entry to Israel.
While Palestinian films range from intense realism to oddball surrealism, most highlight life under Israels occupation, and Fatenah is no different.
Producer Saed Andoni said he hoped to humanize the struggle of Gazans seeking medical care. The gravely ill must seek treatment abroad because doctors in Gazas ramshackle, poorly equipped hospitals cannot treat serious diseases. But it can take weeks for Palestinian bureaucrats to organize referrals and for Israel and Egypt to approve or deny entry.
Gazans are isolated from the world by years of prolonged closure that was tightened to a blockade after Hamas militants seized power in June 2007. Supplies are scarce and some critically ill residents are left to die in Gaza.
In early 2004, the 28-year-old woman who inspired Fatenah felt a lump in her breast but Palestinian doctors dismissed her concerns. One doctor told her having children would cure her lump, but the cancer quickly spread and she had to undergo a double mastectomy. Israeli activists had to lobby courts to let the woman enter Israel, because she did not have a valid ID - Israeli officials had halted procedures for Palestinians to obtain them at the time. She often missed appointments because soldiers wouldnt let her cross into Israel.
The climactic scene in Fatenah, where a female Israeli soldier demands she disrobe for a security check occurred in September 2004, according to the Physicians for Human Rights report.
The conservative Gazan father of Fatenahs real life inspiration said he only learned of the film after reporters contacted them. He unsuccessfully asked filmmakers to cut a brief, dimly lit scene showing her breasts, fearing damage to his daughters reputation, even years after her death. The father, who requested anonymity, also expressed concern about Fatenahs innocent romance portrayed in the film.
Habash said he didnt feel he had to tell the family about the screenplay because the film - while inspired by the Gaza womans ordeal - was a fictionalized account. We made a love story. Its sensitive, Habash acknowledged. But it also allows Fatenah to be a story about a lack of access to health.
-AP
