The Present

Most of the series that talks about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict are biased to Israel, but this film shows a part of the humiliation and suffering Palestinian face every day at Israeli checkpoints. Looking forward more like this in the future.

The Present is a Palestinian short film that takes a very simple scenario of a man living in the West Bank who sets out with his daughter to buy his wife an anniversary gift, against the many checkpoints and surveillances that come with being a Palestinian.

The success of this movie is that it doesn't try to showcase the horrors of the occupation, rather a more relatable scenario that can be empathized with universally, using that to share what it's like to be on the receiving end of the occupation. It's a movie that I feel everyone should watch, and is one I would wholeheartedly recommend.

My favourite thing about films like this is that you get to see other things in the world that you wouldn't normally experience, for better or for worse.

I don't really know much about the subject but after watching this I researched a little bit about it and I'm still not 100% sure what the point in these checkpoints are but I did read that workers have to stand and wait at them from 3am to go to work. That is crazy.

This film shows that struggle by forming it as a simple shopping trip that takes the whole day, from early in the morning and having them return when it's dark. It's shows the cruelty of people and that people with power will try and use that against people with none.

The Lead actor was fantastic and you could see the rage and pain in his eyes.

I watched this film via a film festival and got to hear from the director that the opening scene of humans walking through an Israeli checkpoint were live and real. My God! Seeing these forbidden scenes that mainstream media won't show alone is a reason to watch this film. The beautiful superb acting and simple story being the point home beautifully. We need more from Palestinian film makers bearing witness to the plight of the plight of Palestinians in this humane way.

This film was so moving. The part I loved the most was how human the situation was. As you watch it, you feel the frustration of what its like to go through the day with that kind of adversity. When that adversity looks like abuse of power its especially difficult to digest. The young lady is so pure and a delightful soul. The thing that left me was that it only shows the story from the lens of "in the day of". It leaves you with the question, that what would be the consequence of making independent decisions. That anxiety hits you hard especially if you have experienced oppressive situations like this before. For many that have empathy or a history of systems like this, this movie definitely leaves a mark.