The government of Israel is protesting against the upcoming Netflix film Farha depicting the murder of a Palestinian family during the 1948 war.
Israeli officials accuse the film of “creating a false narrative”. Farha is the debut movie of Jordanian filmmaker Darin Sallam that has been shown at several film festivals around the world since its release last year. The film is Jordan’s Oscar entry for 2023. The streaming of the film will begin to the world audience on Thursday.
The trailer of the movie reads that the film is inspired by real events. The film narrates the story of a 14-year-old girl who lost her entire family during the 1948 war. She saw her family being killed by the Israeli soldiers. The father of the 14-year-old girl locks her up in the storage room during the events of Nakba which Arab refers to the ethnic cleansing and displacement of about 700,000 Palestinians. Farha witnesses the killing of her family by the nascent Israeli soldiers.
The Israeli government is in full panic mode because the powerful debut feature @FarhaFilm by @DarinSallam is due to start streaming on @Netflix tomorrow, engaging millions of people on a truth that Israel has tried to suppress and erase for decades. #nakba pic.twitter.com/ebT6k6hLMv
— AHMED | أحمد (@ASE) November 30, 2022
“It’s crazy that Netflix decided to stream a movie whose whole purpose is to create a pretense and incite against Israeli soldiers,” said Israel’s outgoing finance minister, Avigdor Lieberman, in a statement.
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Cultural ministers say the film depicts “lies and libels”, and that showing it in Israeli theatre is a disgrace. The director says she made the film because while many tell the narratives of Palestinians few talks about the reason for this conflict.
Farha movie is now available on Netflix. Don’t miss y’all #farha #Israel pic.twitter.com/kuCacXlTFc
— Abier (@abierkhatib) December 1, 2022
“The story traveled over the years to reach me. It stayed with me. When I was a child, I had this fear of closed, dark places and I kept thinking of this girl and what happened to her,” the director told Arab News.
According to international media outlets, Israelis are canceling their subscription to Netflix in protest.