TORONTO: Palestinian director Farah Nabulsi’s feature debut “The Teacher” wowed audiences at the recent Toronto International Film Festival.   

The story revolves around the parallel struggles of a Palestinian schoolteacher grieving the loss of his son and an American couple fighting to reclaim their son from kidnappers.  

“This is a story about characters that represent a severely marginalized and underrepresented people,” Oscar-nominated and BAFTA-winning Nablusi told Arab News.  

“It’s a story that challenges stereotypes and lends some kind of insight into the lives and struggles of those people whose voices are often excluded or misrepresented,” she added.  

“The Teacher” stars renowned Palestinian actor Saleh Bakri, who starred in the Oscar-nominated short “The Present,” also directed by Nabulsi.  

Bakri plays the role of a teacher struggling to reconcile his life-threatening commitment to political resistance with his emotional support for one of his students, Adam.  

“I think Saleh Bakri is one of the best actors in the Arab world,” Nabulsi said. “I think he’s the Daniel Day-Lewis of the Arab world. He has an intensity; he has an emotional intelligence that is fantastic. Whereas Mohamed Abdel Rahman, who’s our Adam, who’s a wonderful newcomer that I will say I’ve discovered, I feel like I have … it’s just that raw talent that you rarely come across.” 

Shot with difficulty in the occupied Palestinian West Bank, the film is based on a true story that offers a tragic yet hopeful insight on the struggles that Palestinians face. 

“The story of ‘The Teacher’ is the sort of amalgamation of all these different real-life events that I’ve come across during my travels and trips to Palestine, where I have been talking with numerous Palestinians about so many real-life events that they have experienced firsthand, that take place and inspired the screenplay,” Nabulsi said.  

“There’s always this thing, this reluctance, this idea that if a film is to do with Palestine that maybe, maybe it won’t sit well so well with Western audiences, for example. And on the contrary, the audience seemed to have loved the film,” she added. “I’ve had a lot of reactions and feedback. Some of the critics have written some wonderful stuff.”