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The screening of the film will be followed by Q&A discussion with the film director Darin J. Sallam. Running time is 92 Minutes. English subtitles. The film screening will start at 12 Noon US EST (clocks move back one hour in US at 2:00 AM Sunday Nov 5).
About the Film
Farha is a 14-year-old girl who lives in a small village in Palestine, 1948. Girls her age are traditionally married off or spoken for yet Farha wants to continue her education despite traditions and the restrictions of schooling in her village to boys only. Inseparable from her best friend Farida, who lives in the city but who spends weekends in the village, Farha dreams of joining her at a school in the city. Life in the village is threatened and aggressively changed by the looming danger. Just when Farha’s father is finally convinced and Farha’s dream is at last coming true, the danger comes closer to their village. As violence escalates, Farha is brutally separated from Farida. Terrorized for his daughter’s safety and fearing for her life, Farha’s father locks her up in a concealed, small food storage space by the house, promising to return. But he never does.
Over the course of the next few days, Farha undergoes a life-changing experience while buried in the tight dark space, her only connection to the outside world is a small hole in the wall and a few cracks in the wooden door. Farha witnesses a lot of events, outside and inside the room, setting off her journey of transformation and forcing her to grow up and leave her childhood behind.
Darin J. Sallam
Director’s Biography:
Jordanian writer/director of Palestinian roots Darin J. Sallam holds an MFA from the Red Sea Institute for Cinematic Arts (RSICA), affiliated with the University of Southern California.
To her credit are 5 award-winning shorts, including THE DARK OUTSIDE (2012) and THE PARROT (2016).
A Berlinale Talent 2021, a Robert Bosch 2015 Film Prize recipient and recently inducted into the prestigious Asia Pacific Screen Academy, Sallam was selected to the 2017 La Cité Internationale des Arts residency in Paris and to the 2018 Global Media Makers fellowship by Film Independent in Los Angeles. She was a jury member at international film festivals and is co-founder & managing partner at the Amman-based production company TaleBox.
Her critically acclaimed debut feature film FARHA (2021) had its world premiere at the 46th Toronto International Film Festival, won 12 awards to date from international film festivals including best film, best director, the jury award, the audience award and the grand prize and started streaming in December 2022 on Netflix worldwide. FARHA was also selected as Jordan’s entry in the International Feature Film category at the 95th Academy Awards (Oscars) in 2023 and achieved a historic first win for Jordan by receiving the Best Youth Film award at the 15th Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA), known as “the Asian Oscars”, making Sallam the first Jordanian director ever to be awarded an APSA.
More recently, Sallam was named among Variety’s Impactful International Women of 2023 and received the IMEU (Institute of Middle East Understanding) Storyteller Award 2023.