AMMAN — In a mere one minute
and 24 seconds, Omar Rammal, a 23-year-old
Palestinian director and
cinematographer managed to visually capture decades of Palestinian suffering.
اضافة اعلان
His newest
film, “The Place,”
which has been circulating widely on social media channels, features a number
of Palestinian family members describing their favorite rooms in the house
while Israeli settlers seize and pack up their objects. The casual, relaxed
tone of the family members contrasts with the theft occurring around them.
“The message of the movie is
important: Palestinians are not safe in their own homes,” said Rammal in an
interview with Jordan News. “It is supposed to be the safest place.”
Following recent events in
occupied Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, where Israeli forces attempted
to forcibly evict Palestinian families from their homes and used violence
against peaceful protesters, Rammal wanted to spread the story and unite people
in their fight for human rights.
So far, the powerful short film
has received close to 6 million views on Rammal’s Instagram and over 400,000
likes.
“The idea came from the reality
we live every day. It came from a place of solidarity and our feelings towards
the current situation,” said Rammal. “We are exposed to attacks in front of the
whole world and it is our duty to make anyone able to speak out to do so in
order to reach justice.”
He wanted to demonstrate that
Palestinian homes are more than just a place; they are their identity. “The
place is us. Our grandparents lived here, we lived here, we made the place what
it is today, and we planted it with our hopes and dreams.”
Rammal’s desire to powerfully depict
human stories has always been at the core of his work and is what compelled him
to enter the industry.
While studying filmmaking in
Jordan, he began working on a variety of films, including commercial content. However,
Rammal considers his work in cinema to be the most powerful.
Among his projects is a short
documentary about a young Syrian girl who lives in a refugee camp. It explores
the impact of living in camps on the development of children’s and teenagers’ identities,
he explained.
“This was my first movie and it
spread widely,” said Rammal. “It earned six or seven awards and participated in
around 40–45 local and global festivals.”
Another film Rammal recently
worked on is called “Hajez.” Describing the film, he explained that “It
is a short drama about a Palestinian family that goes to the carnival during eid
and is faced with difficulties at the Israeli checkpoints.” The movie won a
grant from Jordan’s Royal Film Commission.
The use of humanitarian stories
to communicate social issues unites his work. By drawing from his personal
identity, Rammal instills these stories with the power to mobilize audiences.
This is an approach he believes
to be especially important in an age of social media; when used effectively, these
tools can help generate global solidarity.
“Everyone in their work, their
art, their voices, their words can be a part of forming the Palestinian
narrative and correcting the facts,” said Rammal. “We need to keep defending
and fighting for human rights.”
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