“The jacket symbolises Palestine and it shows how lost we are, or how they try to lead us astray,” says Palestinian exile Jamal Hindawi in Mathijs Poppe’s latest feature doc, selected for IDFA Luminous. Jamal, who lives with his family in Beirut’s Shatila refugee camp, is referring to the eponymous prop to be used in a political stage play that he is working on with friends and colleagues. The jacket is a patchwork of colours and materials all of which represent the feuding interests that have staked a claim in the country.
The thing is, before the plat can be staged, the jacket is lost, and so Jamal must go on an odyssey to reclaim it, in the process witnessing anew how the politics and economics of the region have severely affected the lives and livelihoods of its people.
“I was fascinated with the way he used fiction to process his own situation,” says director Poppe of his protagonist Jamal. “This was the thing that first drew my attention, this intertwinement between the fictional character in the theatre play and himself. He always said, ‘I just had to step onto the stage and I didn’t have to get into different clothes…we [Jamal onstage and offstage] are one and the same.’”
The relationship between the director and Jamal actually goes back 13 years, when the 19-year-old Poppe visited the Shatila camp in Lebanon, armed with a camera. He was welcomed with open arms, but still found himself applying a clichéd rationale in his filming decisions.
“My ignorant questions perpetuated stereotypes, casting them into ‘victim’ roles. It turned out that my images held meaning only in a world that shows and sees Palestinians solely as victims,” Poppe writes in his film notes, adding the equally clichéd stereotype of ‘terrorist’ when speaking to Business Doc Europe. “Instead of using the camera to bridge connections, it felt like it had created more distance. Disheartened, I decided not to use the footage upon my return to Belgium. In the years after, I came to the realization that shifting the filmmaker-subject relationship was essential to change the narrative.”
Getting to know Jamal over the years, and seeing how this new and trusted friend could use fiction as a means of dealing with his situation in exile, provided a starting for point for collaboration. In 2017, Poppe made his graduation film Ours is a Country of Words. The Jacket is their second film together.
Of course, there is more to the film than the loss of a mere jacket, an episode that Poppe refers to as a fictional “intervention” on his part. “As I see it, the film delves into the theme of belonging. The belonging to one’s heritage, one’s land, one’s family and one’s community,” he says in his production notes. “We discover Jamal’s relationship to all of these in the first part of the film, but I wanted to contextualize these aspects within the wider context of Lebanon and Beirut. Through the loss of the jacket, we get to see the world that surrounds Jamal. Over the past 13 years, since my first visit to Lebanon, the country has changed drastically. With its consecutive political and economic crises, Lebanon has become an example of the fluidity of our times. Nothing has a clear value anymore, given the prevalence of constant currency.”
Flemish production outfit Mirage gained support from co-production partners Fulgurance, Family Affair Films, Placeless Films, Lyon Capitale TV and Al Jazeera Documentary to make the film, and funding from the likes of VAF, CNC and the Netherlands Film Fund.
The film was in development and production for a number of years, but no-one could have predicted the dire events of the past year in the Middle East. How have these affected Poppe’s characters in the film?
“I think it’s very important to note that for the people that I know in Lebanon, not so much has changed necessarily. Of course, now the war has come closer, and of course that changes their day-to-day life dramatically. So, that’s not to say that things didn’t change, but especially as Palestinians in Lebanon, the war has been going on for 75+ years,” the director answers.
“I think it says more from our perspective as Westerners that now suddenly it’s a lot in the media, and of course what’s happening is atrocious and it should stop immediately. There should be a ceasefire, but in the end, it’s a war that has been going on for 75+ years,” he reiterates. “That’s also how they look at it. It’s expanding and it’s becoming more and more violent, but at the same time, it’s been going on for that long.”
The Jacket received its international premiere at IDFA, hot on the heels of a world premiere at the Film Fest Gent in October, which was attended by Jamal and his family.
“To be able to share that moment together and to show it to an audience for the first time, it was a truly very beautiful time for me and for them also. It was the first time they came to Europe, so it was very, very special in that sense. I think Jamal was very proud of the film and to show it with an audience,” says Poppe.
And will their collaboration continue? “It’s an ongoing [process], I would say, of working on these films. It’s something that will never end from my perspective…Now there is a possibility of going much deeper because we are making these films together. I think that’s my aim also for the future.”
Poppe is currently working with Jamal’s daughter Hanan, whose voice we hear in conversation at the end of the film, who lives in Bristol,” the director adds. “Which of course Jamal and his family will also be part of in some way. That’s where we are heading at the moment.”
