AxisMundi Jerusalem

The true story of a young Gazan woman’s futile battle against breast cancer has been commemorated in the first-ever Palestinian animated commercial film. “Fatenah” debuted last night in the West Bank city of Ramallah, at the Al-Kasabah Theater, and was received by a large and enthusiastic audience.

“I liked the balance of tragedy and comedy,” said one viewer. “It was depressing but also a very accurate picture of how Palestinians have to try and get health care, being treated as less than human beings.”

The film, only 30-minutes long, draws inspiration from a true story of a woman who died in the midst of trying to get treatment for breast cancer. Her story was documented by the Israeli branch of Physicians for Human Rights.

Director and animator Ahmad Habash says the piece, which is being funded by the World Health Organization in the occupied Palestinian territories, tries not to portray either side—Israeli or Palestinian—as sheer good or evil. “That’s the reality,” he said. “There were doctors that tricked the girl and those that helped her on the Palestinian side. And on the Israeli side there were people who helped her, and those who didn’t”.

Much of the tragedy was in watching Fatenah’s humiliating and frustrating attempts to get into Israel for treatment. This was set off by a touch of black comedy, with Palestinian doctors who brushed off the girl’s concerns over the lump in her breast, saying she “should just loosen her bra,” or that “those things tend to go away with marriage.” (Despite significant deviations from the real-life story, Habash says that those encounters with doctors actually took place.)

As if to compliment a story of fighting for basic needs, the film’s animators had their own back story of struggle as well: “We faced a lot of problems. We weren’t able to go to Gaza. People in Gaza had to help us, they sent us pictures, and video.”

“Fatenah’s” creators tried to make their film unique by creating drama around an issue as seemingly basic as healthcare. In a former interview, producer Saed Andony said this approach personalizes an otherwise broad, overwhelming topic: “A big number of people have died because of lack of health. Each one of these has a big story, each one has a family, have a love. We want people to stop looking at the numbers. Our problem is, now, that the world looks at the Palestinians as numbers.”

The film, which has been translated into English and Hebrew as well, is slated to appear at film festivals in Venice, Toronoto, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai, before being shown throughout the Palestinian territories.

Checkout:

Fatenah Trailer

Fatenah–website

Animated Shorts by Ahmad Habash:

“Flee”-2006

“Red Feather”-2007