Bad Hasbara - The World's Most Moral Podcast - 193: Palestine 36 Chambers, with Annemarie Jacir

Episode Date: March 31, 2026

Matt and Daniel are joined by Annemarie Jacir, director of the new film Palestine 36. They discuss filmmaking under occupation, semantics as a weapon of oppression, and a history more violent than any latter-day erstwhile Aragorn movie.Please donate to Islamic Relief USA: https://irusa.orgTICKETS: FRANCESCA FIORENTINI AND MATT LIEB APRIL 5 AT CHILLXSTUDIO: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/francesca-fiorentini-and-matt-lieb-co-headline-tickets-1985342654323See Palestine 36: https://www.watermelonpictures.com/films/palestine-36New Bad Hasbara Merch: https://estoymerchandise.com/collections/bad-hasbara-podcastSubscribe to the Patreon https://www.patreon.com/badhasbaraWhat’s The Spin playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/50JoIqCvlxL3QSNj2BsdURSkad Skasbarska playlist: http://bit.ly/skadskasbarskaSubscribe/listen to Bad Hasbara wherever you get your podcasts.Spotify https://spoti.fi/3HgpxDmApple Podcasts https://apple.co/4kizajtSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/bad-hasbara/donationsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

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had an electrified fooling machine. Oh, I love that. I love it. April Fool's is technically tomorrow. This comes out on the 31st. That's right. I'm just getting people ready for it. You're getting people ready for the holiday known as April 1st.

That's right. April Fool's Day. If you're not a fool, you should subscribe to Bad Hasbara. something you can do right now by clicking the subscribe button. You can also go to patreon.com slash bad hasbarah and joining the Patreon. What do you get if you do

that? Well, you get a bonus episode every week, mostly. You get early access to tickets to shows like our sold out L.A. and Vancouver live podcasts that are happening in the next two weeks. That's right. You get those tickets before anyone else. Speaking of which

if you are in Vancouver or in the surrounding area, And are like, dang, I can't believe I'm missing Baddest Bar. It's sold out. Well, guess what? There's a live stand-up show that has me and my wife, Francesca Furentini. That is on April 5th. Sunday, April 5th at 7 p.m.

We will be at the same studio, same venues, Chill X Studio in Vancouver. Please get your tickets now to see some stand-up comedy. And I'll just say this. I might have one extra ticket to sell for Vancouver. I will know the day of if you send us. an email at Badhouse Barra at gmail.com. Okay. And put Daniel ticket in the subject line.

First come first, possibly served. I'll let you know closer to the date. I like it. We might have tickets released, or at least one. This is going to be a really fun episode. As people can tell,

I'm already excited and nervous. But we have other things to talk about before we get to our wonderful guest, including today's sponsor, Today's episode is brought to you by Islamic Relief USA. Islamic Relief has been working in the Middle East since 1997 and is currently providing food aid, clean water, educational resources, and health care in Gaza.

If you have any money and you would like to donate it to a good cause, consider donating to Islamic Relief USA. That's irusa.org. Click the link in the description to donate. Daniel. Yeah, man. What's that spin, baby? Well, it's nice to be back doing the spin.

I got to say, I listened to Friday's episode with you and Adam and Nora. And, you know, the show really breathes without constant punning. Mm, does it? Yeah, it was a great episode. It was great. And, you know, Adam's spoon was delicious and crispy and thin crust. And, you know, but I'm back with a vengeance. I got some records.

Back to spin it, baby. Yeah, back to spin it. So, what can I say? Wednesday is April Fool's Day but it also coincides with the first evening of Passover on Wednesday night Actually the two holidays have more uncommon than you think

Originally the 10 plagues were called 10 plagues were called the 10 pranks They were pranks April Fool's pranks that God played on the Egyptians I love that So I got some Passover theme stuff The best prank is when they kill the first four

You just got punked You're just punking the Pharaoh Well, all the lambs that got slaughtered for their blood got punked too. That's right. God put Celophane on the Egyptian's toilets. Yeah, exactly. So I got a couple of Seder albums here that I don't, they're not on any streaming service, but you can find them on YouTube, I think.

The Moishe Oysher Seder. Moishe Oysher is a cantor, like an amazing Jewish chazan singer with this incredible operatic voice. That's not a, that's a real name that he's not doing an anti-year. Dismetic thing? No, no, no, Moisha Oyshire. Moisher, that's his name. I love that.

Yeah. That's incredible. I'm now just thinking of someone in Yiddish doing Usher songs. Moishe Oisher. Oisher. Yeah. Oh. Yeah.

Did you have good canter banter? Yeah. Oisha, Moisher with the canter banter. This is another Passover Seder album, the Malavski family choir. Passover And then some related things Paul Robeson

This is his kind of three record compilation Scandalize My Name And he sings an incredible Go Down Moses He's the voice of Yotriman one Mr. Grinch Oh, that's him?

That's him Oh, he's great Now I want to listen to that I love that It does a beautiful version of Godham Moses. You're a mean one. Mr. Farrow. Yeah, there we go.

Black Moses by Isaac Hayes. Yeah. Hell yeah. Love Isaac Hayes. Probably Moses was Black Moses. Let's be real. Yeah, that sounds great. Given the region and that he was mistaken for the Pharaoh's son all those years when he grew up in the palace.

That's a very good point. Speaking of Pharaoh, Pharaoh Sanders, with his album, Karma, Free Jazz Legend. Okay, okay. This has the song, The Creator Has a Master Plan. It's beautiful music. We spoke about the plagues. I mentioned this album last time, but I didn't feature it on the spin. Infectious Groves, the Suicidal Tendency's Side Project with Mike Muir and Robert Turhillo, who is now Metallica.

The Plague That Makes Your Booty Move, it's the Infectious Groves. A ridiculous album, that's actually quite a lot of fun. Funk metal. Hell yeah. Rolling Stones, Tatu You has a song called Slave on it. Just like in Egypt. What we were.

Just like in Egypt. Yeah, I'm just, you know, I'll take any tenuous linguistic similarity. Soundgarden has a song called Slaves and Bulldozers and there's a live version of it. On this there, when Jagger was in Egypt's clan,

yes, this is an EP they put out between Bad Motifinger and Super Unknown. It's called Satan Ocelain. my metallic sonatas, which is a palindrome. It's spelled the same backwards and forwards. Amazing. I don't know this one.

It's great. The standout of it is a cover of Into the Void by Black Sabbath. Yeah. But they replaced the lyrics with the words of a speech attributed to Chief Self or Seattle about how the white man despoils the environment. Yeah, I love that. It's very, very cool. They also covered Devo, girl.

you want on that. Exodus is on Bob Marley and the Whalers legend. I mean, classic. Power slave by Iron Maiden with the Egyptian imagery on the title. Yeah, we built that. We built that. And speaking of slaves, slaves, Hebrews born to serve to the Pharaoh.

creeping death by Metallica is. The entire Passover story. When I realized that at age 12, I think I read the entire lyrics at the next family. That's, I just am now realizing because of the, when you were born, this is sort of like your version of,

the Rugrats are doing Passover. Oh, yeah. You know, because as growing up, that was the first time I was like, wow, look at that major media talking about Passover.

For you, it was that trip on, James Headfield. It was on Ride the Lightning. It was on Ride the Lightning. I, I love that. That's great. And of course, fight fire with fire is the story of Purim. I don't know. Just have a little bit of fun. Yeah. So that is...

And the call of Kutulu is about the protocol of the elders of Zion. That's right. That's right. Well, so that's what is spinning. Before we go on and introduce our guest, Daniel, there's something that you have put here in my doc that just says pre-guest. Yeah, I wanted to highlight this. I wanted to do it last week, but then I forgot. So it's a little untimely. Okay. It's a weather alert for the Israel-Palestine region,

done by our favorite weatherman, Frankie McDonald, from Nova Scotia. And it's just too funny. I mean, he's great, you know. We're not making fun of him, but. The fact that he's warning of massive incoming barrages of whatever from the sky in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, we had to play it. Yes. So thank you for this.

Here's that. This is Franklin McDowell. My own TV station live in Sydney, Nova Scotia. Heavy rains headed towards Israel on Thursday, March 26, 2000, 26, especially in Tel Aviv, Israel. It's going to bring a lot of rain in Tel Aviv Israel in its round areas. It's going to start on Wednesday, March 25th or evening hours. It's going to bring so much heavy rain on Thursday, March, 26, 2026, including Jerusalem, Israel, streets, roads, highways, and freeways will be wet.

There will be a lot of puddles on the streets and things like this. I urge everyone to wear your rain gear, rubber boots, or rain coats. And get to shelter. Stay in your rain bunker. Don't walk to the puddles and don't drive a car to the puddles either for people living in Israel, especially in Tel Aviv Israel, really familiar with Israel, and it's around there as well. Be prepared. Stay driving.

Oh, my God. I love that because he does the weather. All right. For those you who don't know, this is what he does. He does the weather. In this particular case, it does sound like he worked for the IRGC. The Iron Dome and all of the radars have been completely destroyed by Iran. And so all that's left is this guy going, hey, Israel.

Big massive rainstorm Coming at you very soon Massive barrage of falling precipitation That's right Take shelter Take shelter And please don't do the thing Where you don't allow certain people

Into the shelters Make sure everyone stays safe out there Everyone deserves an umbrella Oh my God Shout out to him What's his name again? Frankie McDonald Oh what he is such a

He's a national treasure for In Sydney Nova Scotia No he really is I'm happy Avi Lewis won the NDP leadership, but I vote for him for prime minister against Avi any day. Any day now. All right. Daniel, now it is time for us to introduce our wonderful guest who I am so stoked about. We listen, we on the show mostly interview friends of ours and whatnot.

And occasionally we interview an artist who's done something, And in this case, this next guest is incredible. She is a filmmaker. She is the writer-director of the movie Palestine 36, which is, I think, in theaters right now and is coming out, I think, is coming out wide right now. Partition offers a possibility of obtaining a solution of the problem, which does justice to the rights and aspirations. of both the Arab and the Jew. Half a loaf is better than no credit at all. As to the British people, they are bound to honor to the other...

I should have whistlet them in the... Yeah, aene. Y'all, yeah, chab. Yall, yeah, chab. On their. Y'all, yeah, chab. Y'all, yeah, chab, on them. Ladies and gentlemen and everyone else,

Welcome to the podcast, Anne Marie Jasser. How you doing? Did I do it right? It's Jasser. But it's okay. It rhymes with sexual harasserment. Okay, but that was not a mnemonic. You didn't give me that earlier, so I had nothing to do.

And, Marie, I'm not, I am not good with names. What people didn't see, you know, if you noticed a cut, it was because I mispronounced Anne Marie. All right? These are the problems. Please welcome to the show. Anna Maria. Anna Maria.

Anna Maria Pizza Ball. Yes. Anne Marie, thank you so much for coming on the World's Most Moral Podcasts. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Yeah, it's good to be here.

You have a lot of... I'm a fan of this podcast and you guys, so I'm very happy to be here. We appreciate that. Incredible to hear. I'm always... I'm always shocked that that's the case with anyone,

especially someone like you who is an actual filmmaker. You're operating at a higher brow level than us. Yes. I mean, in this case, for sure, we both saw Palestine 36 and truly was, I was truly amazed by it. I think it's a really remarkable movie. And I want our audience first to meet you. Tell us about yourself.

Tell us where you're from. And tell us how this movie got made. Well, thank you for those words. I live in, I'm from Bethlehem. My parents are from Bethlehem. And I am now in Haifa. I grew up in many places. but the longest place I lived was actually Saudi Arabia.

And this is my fourth feature film. It is definitely the hardest and most ambitious film that I have ever worked on. It's something that was in the making for about 10 years and it was already one of the, you know, an impossible possible project and then it became infinitely more impossible. I mean, really... You can imagine.

Yeah, in really crazy ways that at one point I thought there was like a giant candid camera somewhere in our lives and is like just throwing shit at us. Like, let's see how, like everything, I can't even say it. Everything that goes wrong, you know, it'll go wrong because I don't want to say it anymore because then it happens. And everything we say things can't get worse, it always gets worse. So I have to just shut up about that. I have to say I was a.

amazed at the ability for this movie to get made being named Palestine, 36, specifically because, you know, at this point, in the last two years, we have seen story after story of people, you know, who made movies like No Other Land, or the voice of Hindrajab, who, due to the subject matter, had their movies either, you know, denied distribution. Or had a, you know, in the case of voice of Hindra Job, a concerted attempt to keep it from winning an Oscar. And in this case, the fact that the movie has Palestine in the title,

I was like, how, how is this possible? And then if you factor in the fact that much of it was filmed after October 7th, and you had to scrap, you're going to, I'm going to ask you about that because when I saw the screening in the interview with my brother, you spoke about the incredible logistical nightmare of, filming it in the first place. You wanted to film it in Palestine, but then after October 7th, it became impossible. And the fact that this is an epic, sprawling, historical film. This is not some intimate portrait of a Palestinian family under duress or, you know,

sort of a whimsical micro slice of life that we sometimes see. This is a Hollywood scale production. It's an epic. So can you talk to us about the genesis of the idea, the pre-production, the research process, and then what happened post-October 7th to the production itself? Yeah, I mean, it was, you know, it was already impossible from the get-go. And when we were trying to finance the film, a film set in the 30s, you know, epic period, tons of extras, huge cast, you know, British soldiers, vehicles, you know, explosions, you know, everything about it. People were like, you guys are completely insane to think you can do this in Palestine. And our attitude was like, no, we are going to do it. You know, we live here. We've done, you know,

it's how we do all our work. Now, my last film, Wajib, was about a father and son delivering wedding invitations and almost entirely takes place in a car in one city. But I was like, yeah, well, this is how, you know, it's how we work. It's how, you know, everything is, you know, we make films under occupation. We make films. in spite of everything always. And it's how everybody, every artist works in Palestine. And it's how everybody lives in Palestine. That everything is no, no, everything is an obstacle.

Everything is a block. And so you have to do it. And we were like, no, we're going to, we are going to be able to do this. We're going to be, you know, we're going to act like we can make a film like anybody else in the world. And yeah, like a big budget film. For us, it's a huge budget. For Hollywood, this is like super low budget.

low-budget film, but for us it was big. And all the complications of it, we're just like, fuck it, let's just, let's do it. Like, just act like we can do it. Let's just pretend we can do it. And we just function that way. And myself and the producer, Palestinian producer, production designer, costume design, you know, location manager, casting director, props, like the construction team. Everybody is in Palestine.

We all live here. So we're like, we're going to take our time to do it right, which is why this, you know, normal two to three month prep was not that. It was one year of prep for us because we started a small group and then we grew and we found this village. We planted crops at the village. The crops failed. We planted more crops. We restored the village. Wow.

You know, we were enabless building, you know, British tanks from the 30s. We built a bus. I mean, we had to make everything. All the weapons. you know, all of it. And so, you know, and we were getting through checkpoints. And on some days we weren't. We're on location scouts.

We're getting stopped by, I can't imagine what it's like to build a tank, a British tank in the West Bank. I know. Did it cause some weird questions from occupiers? We were working under the radar. We were also like, this is so insane. So we were just, we were like filming all of it. Like we started filming the process of how we were making this film because it was so

insane and, you know, that, like, how do we, how do we do this? And, and, and yeah, and it was just like, it was a nightmare for the producer, you know, because nothing was clear. Like, how, okay, you guys built a bus or you built the tank, how are you going to get it out of Nablus to our location? You know, there are checkpoints. And we're like, we'll, we'll try this day. And if it doesn't work, we try the next day. And if it doesn't work, we try the next day. And we'll just figure it all out. It's just like that was the attitude. We'll figure it out. And we'll will it.

We will will it to happen. If you will it, it is no dream. Yes, yeah. Exactly. Inspiring words from somebody, who knows. From somebody. Someone should put out like an inspirational calendar for Palestinians using only repurposed Zionist quotes.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, it's the end result is like, truly incredible to view. Emotionally for me, it was hard to, I don't know, keep my excitement at bay because throughout I just, as the scale of the filmmaking, you know, started being revealed, I realized like, oh, this is not,

this is not your normal, I guess, like, independent movie about occupation or about, Palestine this is something that if we lived in a fairer world if we lived in a West that wasn't complicit in the oppression of Palestinians we would have seen before you know countless times we would have seen this but we've just I'd never seen something made this beautifully and competently about this particular subject matter so speaking speaking of the subject matter the choice to set it in the 1930s under the British occupation. Can you talk a bit about that and why that's an important

time? And I have to admit, like, I know more about the Balfour Declaration than I do about the Peel Commission report, you know? Yeah. They taught us about the Peel Commission report back in my, you know, lefty, Zionist summer camp days. But I, you know, I know about the 40s and I know about the Balfour Declaration. But this period in between, inside of Zionist circles, you hear about 1929, you know, the had grown so-called massacre and so on and so forth. But what was going on in the 30s that made you decide, yeah, this is a moment that is momentous enough and dramatic enough

to focus an entire feature film on? Yeah, I mean, it's an amazing moment. It is incredible because it is the first mass uprising in power. Alstein and this mass uprising against, you know, British colonialism that spread everywhere quickly. And, you know, I grew up. Can I ask a quick question just to interject? Yeah. What Arabic word did they use to call it uprising in the 30s?

Was it Intifada. Faura. It was Thora. It wasn't intifada, but I'm going to tell you, you know, I was about to say, you know, I grew up with the intifada, you know, oh, 1987, this is the first intifada. And I have a lot of family members and a lot of people say, though, it's not the first Intifada. The first Intifada is 1936. And a lot of Palestinians will insist on that. Yeah. I don't think it was, it was not called, an historian can correct me, but I don't think it was ever called Intifada. It was Thora. It was a revolt. But it is the really, the, that is

the uprising. It's 36. And that was the longest strike in history. To date, anywhere, anywhere at that moment. I mean, it was like there was a lot. I mean, it's an incredible moment. And I was, I wanted to know more. I wanted to, you know, pick at it and I wanted to understand more about it. And, and, and the fact that it's 10 to 12 years before the Nekba and how relevant that is, just what no one ever talks about, you know, that before is this, you know, by the time that revolt was crushed is 1939, the population is destroyed already. One and out of every 10 Palestinian men is in prison or killed. The entire leadership is exiled.

There are these village files that the British have like surveillance of the entire country. Everybody who's active, anyone who's, you know, intellectual, anyone who, they had files on all this and how all the religious. Did those files get handed over to the Zionists? Yeah, yeah. Because, you know, Planned Dalit and all of that. that. Like they knew exactly where they were going in what order and how many residents were there. They had the whole registry. Absolutely. 100%. And what crops were big, what village had this crop and what, you know, and lands and all of that. It was all there. Yeah, the movie touches

on that a little bit, sort of the collusion between the, I guess, British Empire and the, at this point, nascent but growing Zionist projects. You know, there are there's a very specific choice you make in this movie in which you are not telling it as a tale of two peoples who are forever in constant violence

which everybody would love to see that deal of the two people. Yeah, the Jewish farmer meets the Palestinian farmer and they buy each other suspiciously but then they start, you know, talking about the way the sun hits the, you know, they realize they both love the land.

That's right. And how similar Hebrew and Arabic are. Right, exactly. And they share a meal. That's right. And then their kids fall in love and that heals everything. Yeah, no, instead it's a very... Someone's listening to this, by the way, and they've written it down and now they're out in Hollywood.

Yeah, they're like... That's a good idea. Hey, let's take lunch. I'm going to be in L.A. in a few weeks, Matt and I would love to pitch you guys on a really bad movie idea. It's already been made a million times. Right, but we'll do it differently this time. And we'll take the money up front, thank you. Yeah, and we'll use a pen name.

I'm thinking Anwar Yakub. Exactly. Good one. Those who haven't seen the movie, you'll come to know that name. Yes, I will explain that in a moment. But, yeah, the choice to make it specifically about the, I mean, from the perspective, of course, of Palestinians who are dealing with, occupation, British occupation, very specifically. Was that a conscious choice is something that you wanted to tell because you felt that maybe people do not know this other part of the story

in which the British occupiers laid sort of the groundwork for the type of occupation you see now? And have you been accused of Jewish erasure? That's right. Yeah. So first question, absolutely like, you know, it's the reason I was interested in the project, not because people don't know that the British set this up, but it's just my daily life. Everything we are living is completely absolutely set up by the British. The entire blueprint of occupation is, you know, created by the British. Everything in our life today, right now is you could trace it to that back then, how the British, you know, set it up. And so it's, yeah, I think people don't know that.

But for me, it was more, you know, like, my God, like the first time, you know, I saw the checkpoints and like family, you know, like all these people at checkpoints in the archives. And I'm thinking about my family and my whole, my mother and my father, my grandparents and myself and my, you know, my child. Like all of us at checkpoints, all our lives. Everything, everything, everything from, you know, just even like the intricacies of, you know, law and, you know, administrative detention.

I mean, it's just like, you go on and on and on about it. They took this and it's here. The Israelis were not even creative in occupation, you know. They even stole that. They even stole that. Occupation, us. Well, yeah, to be fair, that's one of the few things on planet Earth that they don't claim to have invented.

Yeah. Right. Yeah, well, now they don't. they don't. But what's, what was interesting to me about it is that I grew up learning, again, I grew up in a sort of lefty Zionist summer camp setting where they would teach us that we were at odds with the British and the British were our main and we would play role-playing games. We have to sneak through, you know, and build the tower and the wall to make the kibbutz and the Brits were our anti-oh. Oh, yes. We did like 1947, 1948, cosplay without mentioning the

Nakva. And, you know, of course, the Arab radio broadcasts were telling the Arabs to leave in all of the usual Zionist lies and homilies. But yeah, the Brits were antagonists. And of course, there was the bombing of the King David Hotel. But there was that. I mean, it's true. Like, you know, the British were playing both sides. And they were, you know, the Jewish population of Palestine, if you look at the numbers and how it grew from like 19, whatever, 10 to 19, you know, 36, 37, it's just like, but and then of course, you know, 1939, they, you know, they blocked Jews from entering and, you know, they, for sure, you know, the game was not off because they were playing both sides and, you know, I think they needed, they wanted to use the Zionism as,

you know, as the key to empire, as the character says, but also because, you know, and then it was like, oh, now we need to do something else. And that's why I focus. on the British because I'm like, I'm not going to take my eyes off this. This is the, this is where they are the complicit in, in, in, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, setting this whole thing up. It made me, it made me wonder what a Zionist reaction to it would it, would it be, would it be feeling erased and left out or would it be like, fortunately, we're not, we're not, we're not the bad guys for once. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. There have been some responses. Um, I've seen online. There's like, um,

there's this, like, Israeli historian. I think he's like, like, obsessed. with the film. Orrin Kessler. I don't think he's actually seen the film because it's like, we're so ridiculous what he's writing. But I also think he's just trying to promote his book

by talking about the film. But they're like, yeah, you erase the Jews. Amory erased the Jews. I'm like, like, nobody said this was a documentary about the whole situation. And I'm not trying to, you know, this is everything. This is a film from the Palestinian point of view

with main characters are Palestinians. No, I don't have characters that represent every single community. That's not what this is. Yeah. But also you would have then had to have cast Israeli Hebrew-speaking Jews or once who could approximate Yiddish accents, and then you would have had to deal more directly with Jewish-Israeli film infrastructure and all that kind of stuff.

I can imagine all kinds of logistical reasons. But what comes through in the film, there are shots of the Kibbutzniks from a distance. And you hear Yiddish, by the way. And you hear Yiddish. That's right. I clocked that. Yeah. And what's incredible about that is you can see the apartheid already being set up.

They're keeping their distance. It's not like they arrive and they're like, hello, new neighbors. We've just arrived in your land and we'd like to live peaceably with you. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. I'm new to the neighborhood. Can you show me around?

No. Do you want to trade keys in case we need to take care of each other's pets? There's none of that. They're quietly and fastidiously. setting up their own infrastructure that we know 12 years later will these are military outputs yeah they're uses bases it's to me I watched it and and saw it is much more effective that way I mean

and also I laugh at the idea that anyone would write especially an Israeli would write about this movie from the like making the point hey um we haven't yet colonized the Palestinian perspective yet and that's a little bit rude. Like they're trying to colonize the movie by talking about, oh, you know, how come you didn't have us in there? Maybe then Marie could hire a DEI consultant on our next film to make sure that there's inclusion. How come you didn't write a scene in which you guys are doing terrorism? Like that's essentially what they're saying. So it's like, this is like, yeah, like where are we? How come you erased us? And then, you know, it's like,

you know, Michael Winterbottom did a film, Shoshana. Did you guys see that? I haven't seen. It's the only other film I know that it's like this period, British film about a Jewish woman having an affair with a British soldier. Set at the same period, maybe like a year or two before. Guess what? There are no Palestinians in the film. Right.

Guess what? We don't care. It's not about that. That's not what the film is about. Right. Exactly. No one says a mumbling word about it when it's the other way around. The erasure of Palestinians from this narrative is so normalized that you, you know, you just don't, you don't even think about it for at least if you're a Western person or whatever.

Yeah. And also that, you know, that it's like, oh, how come you don't have these political leaders in the film? Like, where's Hajie Amin and Hussaini? He's not in the film. I'm like, no, he's not in the film. David Ben-Gurian is not in the film. Jebatinsky is not in the film. Rebel leaders, like, you know, Yusuf Adbo Dura is not in the film.

and Salem. There are a lot of people on the film. Iron man isn't in the film. Right. Neither is Aquaman. Jesus Christ isn't in the film. Yeah, Thanos isn't there. That all to me sounds like an excuse for why didn't you guys put Hitler in the film? That's the only reason.

Comes to a Palestinian in a dream and whispers in his ear. He's like, here are your marching orders for the next hundred years. You will do this for me. Here's my autobiography. please give it to every kindergartner. Feel free to translate it. Yes. Plant this under the bed of all the children.

This is... But the... I was looking for sort of the Hezbarra take on this movie, and I found, you know, the person you're mentioning was an Israeli historian, this whole thing for the free press, obviously. Oh, great. But I found something else that I thought was great,

some criticisms that I would like you to address. This is from a Jerusalem Post article. This is criticisms and questions posed by Israel, Medad of the Jerusalem Post, in an article that he wrote about this movie without seeing it. And so it's called, Will Palestine 36 showcase the true history of the Arab Revolt? opinion opinion will an improper balance between fact and the cinematic fictional events elements override the genuine historical narrative you got to love it when both the headline

and the subtitle are a rhetorical question that can easily be made non-ritorical by watching the film right no it works better when it's a rhetorical will my prejudices about this film be confirmed yes exactly will it be exactly what i expect probably Rhetorical question answered by the readership. So just here first, he wanted to know if you made it clear that the British were not a colonial ruler. As it is set in 1936, the Arab revolt, quote, against British colonial rule is at its core. However, Britain was not a colonial ruler in the territory known then as Palestine. it was the mandatory power

charged with carrying out the League of Nations decision to reconstitute the historic Jewish national home. Britain, your mission should you choose to accept it? Yeah. Is expend much blood and treasure for the next 40 years. So have you heard that criticism

that they don't count as colonial rulers? Yeah. So like, yeah, it was, you know, the colonial government. I've heard that criticism because when we started to, you know, work on this project, when I started to shoot this project, had the BBC and BFI part of this project. And one of the things they did was we need to just double check everything. Do you mind?

Okay. I'm pretty sure that doesn't happen to other filmmakers, but we'll let it slide. Sure, yeah. Go ahead. Give it to historic. And so one person said, but it's not because somebody from there said it's not, it wasn't exactly a colonial power. on paper. Like it wasn't called colonial, you know, and then

we threw it at a bunch of historians. It was, it behaved as a colonial power. It was colonialism. It was, you know, it was the British mandate. It was a colonial government. It functioned in terms of law and administration as a colonial power. So whatever you call it is sort of irrelevant. But, yeah. I love that argument too, because it's

as if that's I mean it's cold comfort for any Palestinian who lived through a British colonial rule and it's like oh you guys aren't oh this isn't colonial rule yeah right my bad my bad oh yeah that's colonialism over there not right yeah no over here it's technically a mandate

power suddenly I'm really enjoying having my entire village rounded up quite a bit more right yeah well now I understand from their perspective it's just a mandate they have So the second question that he asked, this is sort of the second and third, but he says, moreover, the Arabs there didn't quite refer to themselves as Palestinians.

For example, the revolt's leadership was the Arab Higher Committee. Palestinians usually referred to Jews. In addition, Jews were not colonists in their homeland, which the Arabs conquered in the 7th century. Did you consider calling this instead Israel 7th century? You should, that's how the movie should start. That's how it should start. Yeah, exactly. Or it should be like Jesus's birthday, like everything before 48 is counted in minus numbers.

That's a good title, Jesus's birthday. I like that. All right. We'll pitch that to you guys next. That'll be after the love story we create. Yeah. I would like to see a film about Malcolm Dharwish and his Jewish lover, whatever her name was. She just died.

Rita. Rita. Yeah. But this argument, you know, which is so funny to... It's really funny because it's like Palestinians don't exist. But wait, we were the Palestinians. Like, what are you saying? Right, right.

Which one? Which one is it? Yeah. So you see that Palestinians referred to... refer to themselves as Palestinians. And you find that in a lot of the documents. And anyone who can question that wants a question that can go back to a million historians, Rashid Khaledi, to name one.

They, in paperwork, in documents and in British documents, were referred to as Palestinians, Palestinian Arabs. Yeah, yeah. I'm sure they referred to some of the Jews as Palestinian Jews, especially the ones who lived there. Absolutely. And they were, you know. It's an adjective.

And it's, and you know, the thing is. is let's say it's true. Let's say we didn't call ourselves Palestinians, which we did. But let's say we did it. Who cares? Does that change anything about this? You know, there's like, you know, we were ethnically cleansed off of our land. Whatever you call us. You make something else up. If you want us to call it, we called ourselves whatever, you know, potatoes. It's a very concerted attempt to paint Palestinians rather than as a specific people with a specific culture who lived in a specific

land and specific spots as a broad Arab mishmash and therefore they are entitled to nothing including the homes that they lived in when they were ethnically cleansed. Either a broad Arab mishmash or a suspicious linguistic construct. Right. Like the ontological status of Palestinian is uncertain. Like, do they even really exist? Right. That's the implication. That's the implication.

And it's just, I mean, it's nakedly genocidal. It's an anti-Semitic blood liable to say that Palestinians exist. Right, exactly. But it is, it's, it is nakedly genocidal to make that argument because you are, number one, dehumanizing an entire peoples saying that they are not deserving of rights. But number two, it also is an erasure. of people because they are Palestinians. They call themselves Palestinians. And to suggest otherwise is just to try to find a reason why it's okay to do this. But, you know, I think that like the whole, the Zionist project is about erasing that the fact that Palestinians

were and are, they were never a monolithic thing. So Palestinians, it's a pluralistic thing. society. That's what Zionism wanted to erase. They wanted a Jewish homeland. Palestinians are multi-ethnic, multicultural, multilingual, multilingual, we don't want a monolithic Jewish state. No, we want, you know, you look at everybody who, you're talking about indigenous Palestinian Jews who were there. You can talk about, you know, Sephardic Mizrahi Jews who immigrated over the, like, hundreds of years, Bosnians who came, Armenian Christians who came.

you know, Druze, Greeks, the African community in Palestine that came from Africa as religious pilgrims to Jerusalem, Muslim pilgrims that ended up staying and they're part of the Palestinian community now or Ethiopian Christians. Like that is the makeup of, you know, the place that we live. That is who we are. It was literally an intersection. It was an intersection. Yeah. And for many people's and trade routes and it was a passageway. Well, it's why the denial of, uh, you know, Palestinian, you know, peoplehood is so important because if you are framing it as the, you know, Jews being persecuted by the Arab population who now claims, you know, this title of being Palestinian, it makes it sound more righteous to the Western mind than to say that, you know, Jews from all over the world immigrated to Palestine. a multi-ethnic, multi-religious society in which people of all stripes lived together and decided, no, this needs to be uniformly Jewish and Jewish controlled.

That sounds a lot worse than David and Goliath. But not only that, in bringing all those different Jews from all over the world who couldn't have been more different from each other, then they erased their differences by replacing all of their beautiful identities with this thing called Israeliness. this mongrel identity this invented identity right you mentioned the miserrahi jews they were no longer allowed to be arab jews they were no longer allowed to have arabic accents the aene all of a sudden got disappeared you know so it's like everything even within the jewishness it had to be homogenaic

that's right homogeneous yeah um one other point that uh this person made uh in this article was at the bottom of this paragraph says British rule was only harsh in the sense that it denied as much as it did the Arab's goal of eradicating any Jewish sovereign political presence from the land. The idea now that he's

going to recast the British as like, by the way, they weren't bad. They were only mean to the Palestinians when the Palestinians were trying to do genocide against us. So that's not fair. Your movie is probably unfair.

The criticisms of this movie, I think, are surprisingly, I did not find that many because it does seem to be uniformly loved and respected, at least by the people who have seen it. In the, when did this movie start hitting the festival circuit? And have you noticed any severe pushback of any kind? around it? Yeah, like, it started, so the film, the first festival it screened at was, it was in Toronto, a Toronto International Film Festival.

And it was programmed for a gala screening, which was pretty amazing, you know, for the film because it was, the first screening was in a beautiful theater with 3,000 people. The response was incredible. And it's, it's been, you know, it's been really good, you know,

It's released in different places. It had theatrical releases as well, like the festival releases and then theatrical releases. It played really well in the UK, which everybody was surprised at because it's tough. The film is tough on the British. A little bit. And then people are like, this is going to be really hard for the British. And no, they are the people who came to see the film at least are like, we didn't know this. We want to know this.

we were not taught this or the community was there or people that have come from other colonized places and they really plugged in with the film and it was you know it was an amazing it was like 13 weeks in the cinema and now we're in the u.s we'll see how it goes i mean we had a really good you know opening weekend in in new york um i think people are nervous about the title because palestine in the u.s is still a bad word um and i don't know it's And it's interesting why you guys are the ones who live there. What is it about, you know, Palestine that is, you know, just even as a title, probably terrifying to people. And it's funny to, you know, talking about these, you know, these, the critiques of the film, like you said, like the obsession with like why the political elite leadership is not, are not central characters in the film.

like you know it's for do you really need that like right well it's the it's a type of context that is you know necessary if you're someone who is I think a Zionist

because you need to you need to be able to paint an entire population with a broad with a broad brush and you need to be able to deny that there's such thing as a popular uprising that's right you need to you need to obliterate from your consciousness

the possibility that Palestinians might spontaneously and together collaboratively and strategically decide to assert their rights, right? Yeah, absolutely. And the political elite failed the Palestinians and have continued to fail the Palestinians. And this film, for me, is not about the political... I don't, you know, I want to make the film about us, about the people who, you know, just everyday, regular people.

That is the story of this film. And it's funny how threatening that is, that, you know, if you tell the story of everyday people, a mother and her daughter or, you know, a priest and his son, you know, like this is so, so threatening. Yeah. Speaking of which, I would love to talk about the characters in the film. My favorite character, I alluded to it earlier,

is the writer-en-war Yakub, which is just a great twist in the movie. For those of you who haven't seen it, I don't want to give too much away, so I'll say spoiler alert. But in the film, there is a newspaper in which one of our main characters is the owner and the other is a writer. And we see there is this Anwar Yaqoub who is writing pro-Zionist propaganda within the newspaper, who is later revealed to essentially be not real and just the Zionist commission, had written a bunch of articles and translated them to Arabic in order to try to convince the Arab readership that, you know. Yeah, actual government name, Alon Levy.

Right, exactly. Which is, I mean, listen, if you are a reader of the Atlantic, you see this kind of stuff a lot. Yeah, yeah. Can you explain the origin of this particular storyline? So I was reading and I come across, you know, in the research phase of the project, So I developed the character of Hulud, this journalist, and she's writing under a male name. And then I come across in the readings, you know, there was the Zionist commission had an office of Arab affairs. And I had a great visual.

I just like imagine, like building the Zionist commission. And then you go inside, you walk down the hall and using this shitty little door. with like the Office of Arab Affairs. Yeah. It's just a bunch of Zionists just sitting around the table being like, what are they up to this time? And then it's like what was going on?

And then newspapers were like articles were being placed in newspapers like Zionists were writing articles and translating them to Arabic and putting them in the Palestinian papers pretending that Palestinians wrote them. And I was like, oh my God, this is like so crazy.

like this is like what was happening and it's so it feels like now right it's just like this is you know it's it's like fake news like whatever like you know that i don't know maybe it's naive but i was a little bit struck by the fact that this was going on in the 30s yes no that's that was my reaction to it it's why i say it's my favorite character uh you know somewhat facetiously but i love the storyline because it does very much ring true to what we specifically cover on this show. You're watching sort of the origin of this type of Hasbara. And the fact that this was being done in 1936, I mean, it makes sense to me. Yeah, in 1930s sciop. You also make a choice that I thought was very bold.

And I've heard you speak about this, but I'd love to hear it again. And in this context here, the choice to touch on and really make part of it. of the plot hinge on Palestinian collaboration with or being duped by the Brits and the Zionists. Yeah. Can you talk about that choice and sort of... Yeah, for sure. Because you have in the film, you know, again, spoiler alert, but there are two collaborators. One is in the village, which is the collaborator that I think we've seen a lot in, you know, films.

And then there's the city, the one in the city. you know, ex-hubby. Right. But, no, that's not good. That's spoiler. Yeah, spoiler. We'll cut that spoiler. Yeah.

It's the city rat and the country rat, if you will. Yes. Yeah. But there is a cheat here. I know, I do play around. Daniel, were you at the screening that somebody asked, were you at the one when somebody asked, is there anything that's like historically inaccurate?

in the film? I think I was, yes. So I mentioned at the time the fact that the barrel, the barrel incident actually happens in 1935 and not 1936 as it is in the film. So for those who haven't seen it, she's talking about early in the film, there's a moment where Palestinian laborers and it's a very class-conscious film, actually,

I want to talk about that. But they're unloading ships in the Jaffa dock. Is that where they are? Yeah. Yes. And one of the, and they're working overtime, they're tired, is overworking them.

There's competition with Jewish laborers. It's a working class story. And one of the barrels rolls off the ramp and cracks open and they see that there's tons of ammunition in there being, and it's there for the Jewish settlers. For the settlements for the kibbutzis. So that incident, you're saying?

So that's an incident. So I mentioned that as the cheat, but as soon as I walked off the stage, I forgot another chief, which was like, I wish I'd wish I'd talk about. So now I get to talk about it. That's what you're way more people. Yeah, exactly. But there were national, so this is like, you know, the beginning of like really like the first uprising, as we said, and like an organized national movement for for independence on the Palestinian side. There were also in the 20s, not in the 30s, but in the 20s there was these called these things called the Jewish, sorry, not the Jewish, the Christian Muslim associate. And these were basically national associations made up mostly of like, you know, Palestinian elite, the political elite.

And they were... Landowners, yes. Sometimes landowners, but other people too, just like, you know, lawyers and like people who were, you know, working towards independence. They were called the Muslim Christian associations. And that is also... So the Zionist movement founded Muslim associations in order to break the solidarity of the Christian Muslim associations. Wow. In my film, it's in the 30s, but in actuality, it's in the 20s where that happened.

And so they founded these Muslims. So I started reading about, I'm like, oh, my God, again, like, how many times is this, like, story going to happen? That rings really relevant to many things today. But the fact that, you know, the Zionist commission. founded a Muslim association, you know, to break that solidarity. And people were getting checks. And there's mention about the mayor of Tiberius, the mayor of Haifa. They were actually getting, like, they were part of those Muslim associations,

and they were getting checks. Paid. Yeah. Paid. Like, it's amazing. Yeah, I remember also, you know, at one point, you know, just in terms of stuff that sounds incredibly familiar to today, I forget the name. that was proposed for the,

sort of the northern groups of colonists who were, uh, uh, I, I suppose they were going to go up and, um, you know,

create a big wall is, uh, what the, Liam, Liam C character. Um, and he's playing C. Teagart.

Yeah. Um, uh, Sir Charles, Augustus, a teagart. Um, uh,

and, uh, yeah, he proposes this, you know, unit and I forget what the name of that unit is. Do you remember this specific scene I'm talking about?

Well, Charles Tegar, yeah, they brought him over as this expert and he just come from India and he did a bloody good job. But it's not a colonial project. No, no, yeah. The expert they bring in the specialist in doing

what they're doing is fresh off a stint in India, but it's not a colonial project. Exactly. Yeah, so Liam Cunning plays that part and the guy was actually Irish Teigard and he comes up with the first concept of the wall and then Teigart's forts which still exist all over the place.

These structures are still everywhere and I don't even, I think they even call them that still like Teigart's forts but they were like forts all over to like you know control the population but I think in terms of the group, are you talking about

like Wingate have the special night squads. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I think that's It's like the special night squads. And those were like, you know, that's really the beginning of the Israeli army. Yeah. Is Wingate the Jeremy Arons character? No.

Wingate is the Rob Arameo character, the captain who is like, the unhinged captain. The unhinged captain. The unhinged captain. Young Ned Stark, also he plays Elrond in the Rings of Power. Truly, yes. I was blown away by his performance, mostly because. Spiritually Israeli. We got to say that character is definitely spiritually Israeli.

I was blown away by his transformation into this total evil, you know, prick. He's amazing. Yeah, especially since I'm used to thinking of him as, you know, Elrond. He's one of the good elves. Yeah, yeah. No, he's really intense. He was amazing to work with. I mean, he showed up on set, you know, Rob, and he read every.

Everything, every single book, everything possible about Wingate. He read it all. He's like the ex, he should be doing like masterclasses on like the life of Wingate. Yeah. And he didn't want to talk to anybody. He didn't want to, like, he had his way of war. I mean, it was like a tough role for him because, you know, he couldn't be just like the bad guy.

I mean, he had to really be in a space where this was, you know, like for Wingate. He thought he was on some spiritual mission to protect the Holy Land, some divine mission. He was a Zionist, but he wasn't Christian. He wasn't Jewish. He was Christian. Yes. You know, it's sort of the Christian Zionist representation in this movie. You see that he is, this is more than just him doing, you know, British colonial rule or, you know, mandate power, as they call it.

Yeah. No, you see him. This is a religious mission for him. And they even mention, you know, at one point there's looking at pictures of, you know, Palestinian. you know during the uprising and there is a cross and they all mentioned we need to crop that out because we don't want to confuse the issue um and you can you can tell that there's uh you know this is something we see a lot the total erasure of christian um Palestinians uh because it it muddies the the narrative of known we're specifically going against arab Muslims yeah who are these outsiders

And he's contrasted with another British character who's the, you know, Thomas. Yeah, he's the conscience-stricken one. Yeah. Did you invent him? Was there a guy in reality who said, fuck this, I quit Palestine? Yeah, there was a guy. There are four, yeah. Nobody watched this.

One of my favorite lines in the movie. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I agree. Yeah. The four British characters, which is the high commissioner that Jeremy Irons plays, the Secretary Thomas, you know, Charles Tagart, Liam, and Wingate, Rob, these are based on actual figures. And Thomas was an amazing person that he was secretary. He came to Palestine. He believed in the project. He thought it was like a useful project, a project of education, a project, you know, like the, you know, he was the good side of colonialism.

And he really believed. He really felt that this was helpful for the local population. And he, you know, he showed up like that. He left behind some diaries. I have those diaries. You see in these letters to Palestine, like he slowly understands that this project is a failed project, that it has an agenda. It's not what he thought. And he becomes more and more disillusioned.

Thomas, the real Thomas, who's in the film, he's Thomas Hopkins. In reality, is Thomas Hodgkins. He quit Palestine. But he didn't like, you know, the film, we don't see him again. But in reality, Thomas became a Marxist. And I was at a screening in London where the most amazing thing happened, which is that his niece was in the audience. And somebody said, what does Thomas' family think about this film

because, you know, they live in London? And I said, I didn't know they lived in London. I don't know anybody from the family. I just had the book. And she raised her hand. he says, you know, I'm here. We love this film. The family loves the film. Thomas would have loved this film. He loved Palestine. He, you know, not only became a Marxist, but spent the rest of his life being an anti-colonial activist. Anti-colonial activist. Yes. Or anti-mandate power

activist, whatever you want to call it. Yeah, exactly. And she said, yeah, he was deeply affected by his experience in Palestine and it changed him forever. Wow. That's what an incredible moment. The niece of this, you know, character. I wanted to cry and thank God she loved the movie because if she stood up and said, you know what, we hate the movie. It was really like a different story. But it was great. And I went to meet her and she was like, I'd love to invite you over and Billy Howell, who plays Thomas. And I want, we'd love to show you. We have pictures. We have more letters. We'd love to show you all the stuff we have from Thomas and his brother, which is her father, which I didn't. didn't know. She said my, you know, my uncle, my father was also, you know, both of them were,

were very active about this issue. Wow. That's amazing. Next time I go to London, I will find them. Well, uniformly, the cast is wonderful. It's just a wonderful cast. And you have some people who've never acted before. That's what I learned at the talkback I was at. And then, of course, you got some big names. What role did people like Jeremy Irons and Leon Cunningham play in getting the movie made, financed scene. Yeah. I mean, it's funny because we're coming up with this like, you know, two financiers and two like co-producers with this giant project that is huge. And we're saying we're going to shoot it in Palestine under occupation.

And then I get to say, because the first person to get attached to it was Jeremy. I get to say, you know, Jeremy Irons. Oh, by the way, Jeremy Irons is attached. And people are like, oh, really? So, yeah, it was great because I was on a jury with him and, you know, and his Irish wife, who's very, very active and has a lot to say about Palestine. Amazing. We were just talking and said, what are you working on it?

Then we're going on the script, blah, blah, blah. And then, you know, one thing led to another. And now Jeremy Irons is attached to the film. And it was amazing. It was an amazing moment. And, yeah, like to say that, you know, Jeremy, he wanted to participate, you know, for him and Liam, Liam, it was a no-brainer

because Liam is like talking about Palestine all day and all night. Yes, yeah. I'm in, you know. Also, the guy who plays Amir, you know, he was like, I'm in, you know. He's actually Tunisian. He was like, I'm in.

Like, do you want to read the script? Nope, I'm in, you know? It's incredible. We saw one of our previous guests play one of the characters in the movie. Ameo in the Peel Commission. Kamah Ahmed. Yeah.

Yeah. He played Maher or Meyer or what's, I forget the name of the character. Ahmed Shaheddin. Yeah, yeah, right. He plays Meher, exactly. And he's, yeah, he's, yeah, as soon as I saw his face, I was like, yes, I love this. It's very great seeing him. I mean, you know, he's one of those people who I just like looking at.

He's just a gorgeous person. He's a gorgeous person and he was amazing. He got his little mustache. There's a lot of cameos in the film, a lot of really great cameos. Yeah. And then speaking of, you know, people who are, you know, great actors and wonderful to look at, the character Yusuf is an incredible character. He's played by Kareem Dawud Anaya.

And this is, you know, one of the main characters we follow throughout the film. Number one, beautiful. Like, just like just his eyes are incredible to look at. And number two, the character, you see the sort of the journey that this character takes, you know, from the beginning of the movie to the end. Can you tell us a little bit about the origin of that character as well? Yeah, that character, Karim plays Yusuf and, you know, Yusuf in, I think in some ways for me, was my father. You know, it's by, you know, a young man who just really wants to do the best that he can and, and, you know, you know,

change, you know, make his own life and make his own decisions. And he wanted to leave the village and he wanted to become something else. And that was sort of the seed of, you know,

of the character of Yusuf. And then life happens. And, you know, things are, you know, you make, you make choices. Yeah. And you have to make a decision at some point in your life.

And, you know, it's the story of Yusif. And Kareem, who plays him, you know, you mentioned his eyes. he almost didn't get cast because of his eyes, I have to say, because they were too much. Like, he was like, the first audition, you know, he said through and I was like, oh my God, these like eyes are like incredible.

And his audition was amazing. But I was like, it's just too, like Yusuf. I imagine Yusuf is like a darker person, like dark eyes, dark hair. I just had a different vision of Yusuf. And also because I work with Salah Bakr, who plays Khalid. And I cast Salah in his first film. And it was my first film. And we've always worked together since then, and we're really a team.

And Sala has these very intense blue eyes. So I was like, okay, it's just me kind of weird. Like my two male leads basically have like these really intense eyes. And of course, Palestinians have all colors and shapes and sizes. And, you know, that's what we look like. But when you, it's important also what you, who you put on the screen. And I think that it matters. When it's like really too much, too much blue eyes.

So I kept telling my casting direction. She's like, what's your problem with Yusuf? You think his audition is great. I'm like, I don't know. His eyes are too blue. She's like, what are these eyes are too blue? I'm like, that's too much. And I'm because I could you take that again?

Could you just do that one more time, but this time less mesmerizingly? Yeah, yeah, exactly. You do this less blue. Yeah, less blue. And then, but his, you know, his auditioned stayed with me. I mean, just couldn't get out of my. And I kept, you know, we kept auditioning other people and I just kept thinking about him. And I was like, you know what?

Let's go to Calchelia, the town that he lives in. Let's meet him. And he's just like a beautiful, really beautiful, very beautiful, very, very sensitive. He was the perfect Yusip. So then I called Sala back and I said, I called Sala, I said, Salaf, you're going to have to wear brown contacts in my next film,

FYI. And he was like, why? I'm like, just, that's what it is. Don't worry about it. It is what it is. Yeah. Well, the cast is really incredible and it's it is just beautiful to watch

really. And it's exciting. Yeah, it is. It's exciting. I mean, it's not an action movie per se, but there is action and suspense and intrigue and some sequences that are just heart-stoppingly, suspenseful, and a few moments of heroism that are just like, yeah, I was having a hard time

staying still in my seat as well. Yeah, yeah, truly amazing, amazing to watch. And I, you know, I hope that this movie is seen, I hope that people, you know, go out to their theaters and watch it in theaters because it deserves to be seen on a big screen, which I don't say for many movies, but this one is absolutely epic enough in scale that it needs to be seen in an actual movie theater. So Jeremy Irons would agree with you, by the way, because I sent him a link first to watch the film before I finished. And then he saw it in the cinema and he's like, why are? Earth, did you send me a link? This has to be seen.

I know it has to be seen in a cinema. It's like, but it was for you, you know. My favorite moment with Irons was he got to do something that he does better than anyone. I've seen him do it in another film, Margin Call, which is a scene where there's a meeting, a meeting convened, and he's the authority. And someone is reporting to him and trying to, being nervous. And he has to, and he sits there. It's like, don't worry.

Don't be nervous. It's fine. Just stand there. and in a clear voice, tell me what it is. And you know, of course, he's a total antagonist. Right. But he's got this smooth, sinister silkiness and genuine bono me, you know, a sort of superficial warmth, you know what I'm saying?

And noblesse oblige, that just results in an incredible performance. He's so good. Yeah. And that's when the Palestinian women on strike come to him and have certain demands. And he, in this extremely adept colonial way, manages to, you know, be very polite and gracious and absolutely dismissive at the same time. Absolutely dismissive. And there was a woman, by the way, in that crowd who could not deliver her line because of Jeremy. She was like, I can't believe I'm looking at Jeremy Ayers.

I can't say it. And she just had one line and she couldn't do it. And we did again, we read again. Jeremy was like, he went to hug her. He's like, it's just me. I'm just a person, you know. And I'm nothing. And he went back behind his desk.

And then it came to action. And she's like, I can't. I just want, it's Jeremy Irons. Like, she never did it actually. I want to see, I want to see the blooper reel of that. Yeah. Yeah. I can't.

It's Jeremy Irons. Oh, that's incredible. Yeah, she was totally intimidated. You get a speaking role in a film and you can't deliver it because you're opposite an actor you idolized. Yeah, exactly. And you're surrounded by like 20 women who are like, you're, you know, and they're like, again,

just say the line. Just say it, you can do it. Close your eyes. I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention the two child actors. Oh, yeah, yeah. Wonderful. Yeah. Just wonderful.

Where did you find them? And what was it like working with them? Warden, and so their names are actually Werdin, Warddi. And so the boy goes to school with my daughter. He's at the same school as her. And his father is very, like, best friends with the producer and my husband. Same person.

One person. Oh, yeah. Go ahead. Yeah. And he's incredible. He's a huge talent. He, you know, he was, he's amazing. He wants to act.

He wants to be an actor. He knows exactly what he wants to do. He's a really sharp kid. He's a really, he's also a city boy. And so a lot of the work was getting him into the village accent and to be, like, you know, less slick than he is. And he's also, you know, it took so long to make this film. He started to grow up.

And he, like, you know, it was like, don't hit puberty. Please let us like, slow down. You know, make this film. And what did be the girl, she's from a village in the north of Palestine. And I got a video from the casting director in which she basically does her own audition. She turned on her camera. she does like TikTok. She's a TikToker or whatever. And she turned a camera on herself and she auditioned herself and she does about 18 different accents in a period of three minutes. And she's

hilarious. And she was so just she totally, she stole my heart from like the first second I saw her. I was like, this is, this is our girl. Yeah. She's fantastic in it. Yeah, it's true. The, you know, child acting, you know, for me, I'm very sensitive to child acting because I, it's usually, you know, And no offense to children in general, but they're usually not good at acting. And so it is very rare that a performance, a child actor performance doesn't take me out of the movie. And they were both just like truly incredible to watch and, you know, heartbreaking performances on, you know, for both of them. In general, my thoughts are, you know, children should be replaced by Andy Circus in a motion capture suit. you know, all children every time I see.

But in this case, I was like, no, these are children who are good at acting. Yeah. So truly incredible. We're hoping you could stick around for a few more minutes if that's cool with you and just go over. We have another story to talk about. But also, we have to take a break because it is mandated that every podcast have a commercial break at some point. So everyone stick around. We'll be right back.

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And we're back. This bad ass bar the world's most moral podcast here with Anne-Marie Jassar. Did I do it right? Jassar. Jassar. God. It's the most American possible pronunciation of those letters. He told you harassed.

You can think like, like. I forgot. Yeah, sir. Jassar. Yeah. Yeah. I basically did that. The point is, I did it fine.

Everyone's just getting on my case. That's what it is. The world can't do a Matt Lieb accent is the problem. That's right. That's right. You don't speak your dialect. That's right. I need to get dialogue coaches to everybody.

That's right. Daniel, you had a question. Yeah, and Marie, so, you know, just before we move on from the topic of film, and I think we've praised your film sufficiently, but never enough, because it cannot me praised enough. I feel like we're living in what could be called a golden era of Palestinian filmmaking, or at least we've been treated in the past few years to some great ones. I haven't seen them all, but all that's left of you, the voice of Han Rajah, a few others. Do you have any films that have gotten less attention that you want, you think international audiences and

our listeners should see? And the second part of that question is, the screening of your film. To my surprise, there was a preview, a trailer for an Israeli film called Yes. And the... Oh, yeah. Yeah, by Nadav Lapid. And the New Yorker calls it a furious and grotesque satire of Jewish-Israeli life that charges Israel with self-satisfied brutality.

And I'm always very wary to see Jewish-Israeli films because very often the insight only goes so far. I'm wondering if you know of this film and if I should see it. Yeah, I don't know. I haven't seen it. I don't know. So, yeah, I can tell you I haven't seen it. I know that there was a film that was like short, no, it was shortlisted for the Oscar, or was the Israeli, it wasn't shortlisted. It wasn't shortlisted. The Sea, right?

The Sea, yeah. Yeah. And I found that very, a kind of. kind of have to tell you. I thought, what, like, two years into a genocide, making a film about, like, a Palestinian kid wants to go see the sea, like, we can make our own films about our own stories really well. Like, there's sex, I wish that, like,

yeah, they left out a couple of letters. He should want to go see the I-C-C. Right. Very good. That's nice, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So hopefully, yeah, like, because there's a lot, like, it's really film, like, if they turn the letter, on themselves because they make a lot of films about Palestinians. They're a little bit obsessed with us, I got to say. Huh.

I wonder if there's some sort of psychological thing that goes with. Stop making films about us. Make films about you. And believe me, there's a lot of stuff there. Yeah. So, yeah. I think, you know what? I don't think to your earlier question or earlier comment,

I think, yeah, there's a lot of films. There are so many incredible filmmakers. and especially like working on the ground here and like a new generation as well, short films and documentaries. And, you know, people are, I think there is a problem of distribution and these films, some really beautiful ones and they never get seen and they never get to travel or they get very limited. you know, it's the question of distribution. I mean, the fact that this film is in the theaters for us. And also, you know, you mentioned in Rejab, like, like, none of us have, like, big distribution, you know,

like a lot, all the shortlisted Oscar films. Actually, I haven't looked at it. It would be interested to see of all the shortlisted, you know, 15 shortlisted films, you know, did they have major distribution come on board? Most of them did, I think. Yeah. But not the films.

that talked about Palestine. Yeah. That's for sure. So I, you know, this film now, it's like out in cinemas in the US. I am sure, I have no doubt that if, you know, people know about it, they'll go see it. Even if they hate it, even they're against it. It doesn't matter.

Just like the film is available, like go watch it. People will watch it. Yeah. But, you know, we never even get to that point. You know. I'm trying to imagine some stuff shirt, British hard, hardcore, diehard, British colonialists sitting there in the film

and saying, well, this is quite scurrilous. Yeah, absurd. We were never a colonial power. We were a mandate power, yes. It was mandatory. Yeah. We didn't want to be there. We had to.

That's an accent. Thank you. No, but we went. He went from Upper Cross military gentlemen to fish and chip salesmen. I can't hold it. Fish and chip sales hawker in two seconds. This is absurd. This is absolutely terrible.

You know, we had a guy. That guy was already, he was in London. We had a screening. That guy was there. And he raised his hand and he said, how come you, I'm not going to do the fake accent. How come you didn't, you don't show that actually the British were there. What we did was we created secularism in your region. Before anyone even had a chance to. respond, like on stage, the whole audience was like, shut the hell up, sit down. Like, everybody like tire, like crowd reacted to him and his monocle fell off. This is one of these Zionist lies, of course, that somehow radical Islam is like, goes back.

Like, Zionism has created the situation, or at least massively contributed to the religious radicalization of that region. there was always a strong secular component to Palestinian society, including a labor component and secular cultural life and all that kind of stuff. Yeah. And those Muslim Christian associations that I was talking about earlier were secular organizations. I mean, that was like also, it was like there, you know, it was about a national goal, not a religious one. And those were, you know, cut.

Yeah. It had to be. Israel's always hated secular Palestinian life. You kidding me? The PLO, a secular, moderate political organization? No, they had to go. They had to be replaced by more hardline foils. That's right.

And then as soon as there are religious, quote unquote, hardliners, then all of a sudden it's like, where is Palestinian secular society? You know, where is that? Where is the Palestinian Gandhi, as if Gandhi himself wasn't a complete religious fundamentalist? But that's quite, now we're getting way far afield. Yeah, or, you know, where's the, you know, Palestinian Gandhi or Nelson Mandela and it's just like you, you killed them. You killed them. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. And Bargutti. Speaking of which, I do, I do want to talk about sort of settler violence and the reactions to it. This is an ongoing story. And I'm interested to hear your perspective on, on. this because it is something that I think for all of us, at least on this podcast, we are always surprised whenever we find that Zionists have invented a red line for themselves. Specifically,

settler violence seems to be that at least in the last week or so. So when it comes to genocide in Gaza, right, we've seen almost like a uniformly pro-war sentiment from ultra and liberal Zionists. and all of the sudden now there seems to be this red line when it comes to settler violence. There was some highly publicized pogroms carried out in the West Bank by Jewish settlers against Palestinians. And now we're seeing some condemnations in strange places. First, I want to show this tweet. This is showing Miryav Cohen, who is an Israeli member. of the Knesset. So she

delivered a powerful speech in the Knesset on settler terrorism in the West Bank and quote she says, this is terror and it is Jewish terror. It's not just a few bad apples. The politicians excusing this violence are complicit.

In itself, it's a good speech and then I found out what she said about Gaza. Oh, what did she say about Gaza? Oh, she made some speech a couple of years ago where amounting to it, there's no innocence in Gaza and we have to crush them with more force. I mean, again, these issues are clearly on two different sides of her red line.

Yeah, yeah. Improvised red line. Nothing surprising there. And then, of course, you've got, you know, Isaac Herzog, the president of Israel, who exists to basically make videos in which he says, terrorists have planted mine camp under the beds of children. The man with Zog in his last name. Right, a guy whose last name is a slur.

Herzog condemned settler violence as morally shameful in response to diaspora letter. And then you've got this guy, Yakov Katz, who is like, I believe a journalist in Israel. And I just want to read this tweet. He says, I have serious problems with the term settler violence. It is a generalization that demonizes a community of 500,000 people, almost all of them are good law-abiding citizens. And by law-abiding, he means abiding the complete lawlessness of having your citizens settling occupying, like the Geneva Convention-breaking abiding citizens.

Right. You know, it's the dude abides, but it's the law abides. Also, yeah, in terms of international law, we're not talking about that there. But we cannot let that defense blind us. What has been happening in the West Bank, like the attacks by Jewish extremists in some 20 locations last night, is an abomination. These actions are anti-Jewish. Are they? They are the antithesis of what it means to be Israeli, and they must be stopped with the most aggressive steps law enforcement has at its disposal. We need to slap those wrists harder than we've ever slapped our wrist.

Right, exactly. We need to invent some sort of wrist-slapping machine. Beyond the moral rot, this is a strategic liability. Israel is in a war against Iran, and we have a rare moment to unite a global coalition from the U.S. to Europe to the Gulf. But that support is undermined when these, sorry, the ambulance is after me. I thought you guys got a missile. Yeah, exactly. But that support is undermined when these attacks. occur. Netanyahu knows this and for that reason he went to the IDF Central Command on Friday to try and stop the violence in the middle of a war that needs to be his sole focus. What these attackers are doing is not just criminal. It is a threat to our national security. We cannot defeat our enemies abroad while a violent fringe undermines our legitimacy from within. And it's a rare moment

where external Hasbara and internal Hasbara are aligning. Like we've often noted that there's one message for the Israeli audience in Hebrew. You see it on channel 12, 13, 14, whatever, whatever, however many genocidal channels you guys have over there. And not you guys, but, you know, that place. Excuse me. I mean, you can get them on your television. And then there's the message in broadcast in English to schmucks like us out in the world.

But like, it's like they've closed ranks and it's like, no, the message discipline is settlers, not us. Jewish terror, not us. Again, one of the few things they won't take credit for. What's your take on all this? What are you seeing from where you sit in Haifa? I mean, what am I seeing? It is, I mean, it is really, so I'm not following these, these, you know, posts you just shared the Knesset and, you know, I find it, it is, it is really, though, a serious terrifying moment

and it's not new it's not fringe it has been the situation for many many years as we know you know it's not I don't I'm going to come back to talking about the film but one of the reasons in Shuland

was because that village that we were supposed to we restored this village is completely surrounded by settlements when we were doing our location scouts or that we got we got we got we got we suddenly like a group of settlers would show up in cars and like who are you what are you doing and like questioning us and what did they give me your ID and like stuff I mean we're like who are you um they are terrifying and we were you know an international group this you know cinematographer is French you know we're like

we didn't go back there because yeah we could have fought to like continue go let's go back to that village and let's shoot this film anyway like these scenes here but there were no way we were going to put any actors or any crew on the ground in a place like that where there was like no I mean there's like it is terrifying anything can happen and will happen and I'm I don't know how anybody could even suggest at this point in time that it's fringe right yeah and that's an interesting you know it's an interesting message to see for both Western consumption and for you know Israeli consumption too because is that the

do is really are they that foolish or they that easily fooled into thinking like oh man this really is a fringe thing or is it just so outside of their you know life living in 48

or do they cynically know that the actual message is stop fucking with the program stop making us look bad this is too much you know I don't know I don't know it's No, because I think they have no idea. Like, I mean, they don't, like, you know, being in Haifa, so I'm from Bethlehem.

We go back and forth. People in Haifa, people in, like, Israelis, the majority who live in Tel Aviv, the majority of the population are in cities that they don't see the wall. They don't. It doesn't affect their, of course they know it because, you know, they mostly have all been in the army. Like, they all, you know, they're very aware of it. But in their daily life, you can just pretend. None of this is going on.

If you're really like in that, you know, you can. And for anybody else, you know, it's absolutely impossible, you know. I don't know. You know, it's always the question that, you know, people have when it comes to Israelis. Like, you know, what do they, can it be possible that they don't know? And it seems. Yeah. No.

It just seems like. It's not possible. Yeah. It just seems like it's just completely impossible. But it is possible to do something with knowing something. Right, it is. You put the knowledge somewhere else other than the place where you have to feel something about it or do something about it. Yeah, yeah.

And, you know, with this particular thing, you're seeing, you know, the type of pushback that you wouldn't usually see. And, you know, this is from Euro News. They say exclusive Israel to crack down on settler violence in the West Bank. for more info on this. In the article it says the instructions shared in a non-public document titled quote, Prime Minister's Directive on Combating Nationalist

Crimes in Judea and Samaria are an exceedingly unusual move. I'm sorry, calling it Judean Samaria is a nationalist crime. I know. I love it. I mean, they even say in this article, exceedingly unusual move for the Netanyahu administration, Judea and Samaria are the biblical names

of the area known today as the West Bank. Jesus is birthday. Yes. The Army has announced last week that it was diverting troops away from its ongoing offensive in Lebanon to the West Bank in order to reign in Jewish settler violence. It is the first time Israel pulls out forces from an active war front to dispatch them to a territory deemed far less dangerous or critical.

What's interesting about this move is that it would give anyone any comfort. The idea that we got to take these units out of Lebanon right now and send them to the West Bank to deal with the settler violence is not, I don't think that's going to end well. This is based on my own, you know, research into the subject. Also, recently, CNN had this happen, I'll play a video of it. But so the Israeli military's top general suspended all operational activities of the Reserve Battalion. involved in my team's detention and assault. This is Jeremy Diamond from C&N. He and his team were assaulted by Israeli soldiers

while shooting in the West Bank covering the settler violence. And I want to play some video of that interaction. Straight for our camera. And within seconds, No, no, no. Yo, go. Mata you. Whoa.

A soldier has just put photojournalise. Cyril Theophilus in a chokehold, forcing him to the ground. Don't touch him like that. Don't touch him like that. Give me my phone. The soldier who assaulted Theophilus continues to demand he turn off his camera before another smacks my phone. So as you can see what we have seen.

So yeah, it's, this is, was done not by the hilltop boys, but by the actual IDF. Yeah. And this is, is Jake Tapper in the studio being like, Jeremy, Jeremy, question for you. Did you antagonize them? What tone of voice did you use? Yeah, exactly. What were you wearing?

Yeah. And it's funny because this is like their solution to the settler violence is the IDF. And of course, this battalion is being pulled. The reserve battalion comprised of hundreds of reservists who served in the ultra-Orthodox Nitzha, Yehuda Battalion, will be immediately withdrawn from the West Bank and reassigned to training until further notice. Yeah.

So, guys, they're going to be getting some training. And they're notorious. They had a track record longer than this incident. Of course. Yeah. They've been involved in multiple incidents of aggression on journalists and Palestinians, of course. Yeah.

I mean, it's like the Israeli army has been protecting the settlers and allowing, I mean, this has been like going. on for like, I don't know, since when, but it's like, when have the army ever intervened to stop settlers from doing anything ever? Ever, yeah. It's like, you know, the, I have watched Israeli media before, media meaning like movies and TV, and there is part of the, I guess, I don't know, general thinking seems to be, or the narrative

that's pushed out is like Shinbet and different Israeli police enforcement units are the ones who will take care of the settlers and settler violence. They're sober, clear-headed,

pragmatic, they have their heads on straight. Yes. And I, you know, there's, I've seen some, there was a show miniseries out of that was, Israelis and Palestinians, I believe, both made it, I'm not sure

but it was called The Boys. It was on, or our boys. It was on HBO. I don't know if you guys have seen this. Was it about the killing of Mohammed Abu Ghdad? Yes, yes. And I remember in it, and it wasn't, it was rather good, you know, at the time

when I was watching it. I certainly enjoyed it, just because of its reflection on sort of Israeli society. But I did notice, and I think that stuck with me was this sort of like the way in which Israel separates itself from the settlers and Jewish extremists is sort of like, you know, that, hey, we're also trying to deal with these guys. And if there's something I've learned in the last, you know, 10 years or so,

it's that this is not something that they truly consider a priority. It's, it is, they're actively creating more and more Jewish terror. And the Jewish terror serves a function. It always has. The most incredible example of this genre of fake outrage tweets, the red line tweets was Nafali Bennett saying, we did not found a Jewish state so that violent terror gangs could run amok and kill innocent Palestinians or something.

I'm like, motherfucker, violent terror gangs founded your state. They're on your money, your state. streets are named after them. Yeah. I want to talk about, you know, our boys, just to say, you know,

I remember watching that and I remember I was very, uh, I noticed that as well and I was very, you know, disturbed by it, that it was like, the settlers were

Eastern Arab behaving. Yes. People. Right. And the system, you know, the guy,

the guy who's like, you know, so distraught trying to, you know, figure it out. it's very much about how the system works. The system is good. The Israeli system,

these guys are outside of the system, and we have to deal with them. And it was not, you know, it was very much like, you know, the system is good and the system is correct,

but these fringe people are ruining what, you know, that was, you know, definitely the point of view of that. Right, yeah. It was Israeli copaganda,

which is, you know, strange. But it, It's interesting, you know, to see that sort of, I know, it's an insight into the mindset, I suppose. But it relates to the movie in one way, which is that it seems like the relationship between the state and acts of Jewish settler violence is mirrored in the movie as well. the way like the British are essentially serving the same function as the IDF do now. And there's this sort of pretense of, no, we have a system in place that's going to be fair for all peoples.

But at the end of the day, the system is always landing in favor and in fact, fostering more Jewish extremism, Jewish terrorism. It is sided with the Jewish terrorists to the point where they're like, no, we're going to give half your land. And that's fair. Yeah. Just watching the movie, I realize that important part of history seems to be overshadowed a little bit, which is that the British were laying the groundwork for this kind of continued system that we see before us, you know? Yeah.

Anyways, it just reminded me of how good that movie was. You made a really good movie. Did you know that? Thank you. Thank you. But yeah, like the Peel Commission, you know what? Somebody came to me now. You talk about the criticism earlier.

Someone said, but the Peel Commission now in retrospect, it's like what we hear about Camp David. In retrospect, don't you think had the Palestinians accepted Peel Commission, everything would have been okay? So someone said, like, really, like that's, you know. Yeah, like if it just had accepted Peel, then that's, you know, if it just had accepted Peel, then there never would have been the Neqba. There never would have been this.

That's right. The end goal has always been the same. Yes. And the thing about Peel is that, yeah, it said this is like, okay, we'll have a Jewish, you know, area controlled area here and a Palestinian Arab controlled area here. It wasn't Palestinians. The Palestinian areas in Peel were for Jordan to rule over and not the Palestinian community and the Palestinian leadership.

It was like us being ruled by Jordan, which of course eventually happened. You know, we'd give it to Jordan, but it was never about our own self-determination. It was like, we'll give you the Arab areas, but the Arab areas will not be ruled by you. It will be ruled by other Arabs. Yes.

Yeah, I mean, I love that argument. The radio broadcast where it's announced, that was verbatim in the script. Yeah, yeah. That's incredible. Isn't it amazing? I was like, okay, there's some probably artistic license going on here, but no. I mean, people who have to see the scene.

This is the scene that Ahmed Eldon is in. Is this the British guy saying, you know, half a loaf of bread is better than no bread? Half a loaf is better than no bread at all. You want bread or you don't want bread, Eric. I got to tell you, the first time I'm going to mention this, and it's perfect for, you know, this conversation. That is word by word. Exactly correct. I did take a liberty.

I took out one word. There is a moment where he says that it says the British, I forgot the exact sentence, but it says so that we find, so that we find the British, we find a solution. Actually, what they said was final solution.

Oh. Yeah. And we recorded it, but then in the editing room was like, it's just like, it actually opened up an interesting conversation because people watched it. We did a rough cut and they were like, that is really triggering.

Like, it's really, and I'm like, yeah, it's really fucked up. That's what they said, final solution. They used that word, the final solution. But of course, they didn't mean it in the same way. Hitler meant it. And then it was a big, it was a conversation. Like, do we really want people's mind to be spinning in that direction? You made the right choice because then you get into presentism,

where the scene is overwhelmed and overshadowed by resonance that it couldn't have had at the time and an irony that doesn't really go where it would need to go. Exactly. Exactly. So we took it out. Yeah, exactly. It's crazy to be like, no, history is too on the nose here.

Actual literal history is too on the nose. And I'm sorry, but it is always the case. We've got to intervene. We've got to make it. We've got to revive. the transcript to make our movie more subtle than history was. Right, exactly.

Exactly. Exactly. And it's, of course, it's like classic demand of any Palestinian is to change your history just enough to make it comfortable for the Jewish audience or for a Western audience.

It is, I mean, talk about that's such a perfect metaphor. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, wow. Well, this has been a perfect conversation. Thank you so much for coming on the show. Yeah, we really appreciate it. It's cool that you even listen to this podcast.

Yeah, I listen to it. And there's a woman who works with us in the company, Malek. She was very excited that I'm going to be on this podcast because she came up with a brilliant idea three days ago. She said, you know what? You should be on that bad hospital podcast. And I was like, you know that I am on Monday meeting with them. And she was like, what? It was totally randomly that she thought of it.

That's cool. That rules so hard. Well, we appreciate you actually coming on the podcast and talking to us and we appreciate you for making this movie. Truly incredible. I mean, whatever happens, you know, box office-wise or whatever, you've, this film is amazing. And, you know, in the canon of Palestinian films, it's got of, you know, stand out as truly a masterpiece.

And yeah. I'm sorry, I have to mention Hiamabas. I just remember. We talked about the cast. But the legend, Himabas, who people might know from Succession, is in it. Beautiful performance as the grandmother, too. Anyway, I'm sorry, that's sort of a weird thing to tag on at the end. But yeah. But yeah, small, she's still, I mean, she's amazing.

She's totally unforgettable. She's an amazing person. Incredible in it. Well, thank you so much for coming. on and we'll let us know when you make your next one. Daniel and I are always available for auditions. We can play all sorts of roles. British guys. We're good at that. I see that. I'd be happy to play a British guy in your next movie. And you can do different classes. That's right. I speak intermediate Hebrew. That's right. He speaks intermediate Hebrew. Thank you for coming on. We really appreciate it. Thank you guys. Thank you really for the support.

It's been really a pleasure. Thank you. Well, thank you all out there for listening to this podcast, for watching it, for supporting it. Patreon.com slash bad as barra, betasbara, gmail.com for all your questions, comments and concerns. All right, everyone. Thanks again so much for listening. And until next time, from the river to the sea.

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