“Bye Bye Tiberias”, an interview with director Lina Soualem and actress Hiam Abbass

FRED met with Lina Soualem and her mother the Palestinian actress Hiam Abbass to talk about the former’s second film as a director, the rich, complex, and moving documentary “Bye Bye Tiberias”, in competition at the 20th Marrakech International Film Festival.

Hiam Abbass on leaving, and belonging

“I will always belong there. It feels like even after fifty years, it’s still getting a hold of me, and the fact that Lina brought me back to face all these questions and face all these things, it’s not something new to me: it’s something I’ve lived with all my life, through my work, through my engagements, through all the characters I’ve played… It’s a big cooking thing that keeps going with you: the fire is always lit, it’s always there to have you always think, never stop wondering about the sense of it all.”

Lina Soualem on the long line of strong women we see in the film

“What impressed me is that each of them, in her time, made choices that were kind of vanguard.”

On focusing on the people, not the geopolitical situation

“The thing is, that we are used to talking about this region and Palestinians as a mass, as numbers, they’re totally dehumanised also, and the thing is that there’s such a big contrast between the representation given by the media and what I know of all the Palestinians that I know and grew up with, and of my family. They had so much richness that was totally silenced, and totally shunned, so for me it was really important… I mean it was natural, it wasn’t even a choice: this is what they give, all these images that I have, all these faces, all these moments of sharing, of travelling, of joy that I’ve experienced with my Palestinian family. This is what I’ve known, and I was lucky to have these images because in the context of a story that is silenced and not officially written, each image becomes a proof of our existence, and a proof of our humanity, so having all these images and being able to find archival footage in which we also see all these faces, in the 30s, in the 40s, in a context where officially it is said that there was no one there, when there were actually societies and families, and a life, it becomes precious, it becomes a treasure.”

On seeing this movie with the events currently unfolding in mind

Lina Soualem: “What I was writing six years ago when I started working on the film are the same things that I’m saying today and that we’re seeing today. It’s not something new, you know. When I was writing, I was already talking about this silenced story, the dehumanisation, the need to transmit these stories before they are forgotten and fall into oblivion, the fact that the memories of these people and the women of my Palestinian family are not existing in the places in which they lived and grew up. That’s why for me it’s vital to keep on transmitting the story, yesterday and today, always. Because it’s a culture that has been erased, people that are not present in our official history.”

Hiam Abbass: “When Lina made this movie and when we decided to come to this festival, it was long before this whole thing happened, and as Lina said, whatever is going on there has been ongoing for so long. So whatever the resonance of the movie is right now [for the spectator…] it wasn’t meant to be, it’s just a fact and it is what it is. But the most important thing I want to say is that it’s incredible, because when you see this movie now, you almost have an answer to what’s happening.”

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