GORDON PARSONS is bowled over by a skilfully stripped down and powerfully relevant production of Hamlet
Palestinian heartbreak
MARIA DUARTE recommends a rare and timely drama that explores brilliantly the agonised life lived under Israeli occupation in the West Bank
In which we accompany the Bard into Cymru to meet his musical accomplices, young and old
SUE TURNER is inspired by the example of a librarian’s struggle to confront the book-banning movement
ANDY HEDGECOCK relishes two exhibitions that blur the boundaries between art and community engagement
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews I Am Martin Parr, September Says, The Monkey, and The Gorge
RITA DI SANTO applauds a touching and witty opener that touches a hot topic in Germany: the future of the immigrant population
SIMON PARSONS is discomfited by an unflichingly negative portrait of motherhood and its trials
The Teacher (12A)
Directed by Farah Nabulsi
INSPIRED by true events, Farah Nabulsi’s impressive directorial debut feature takes you on a powerful and emotional journey into the lives and experiences of Palestinians living under colonisation and Israeli military occupation.
The film, written and directed by the Palestinian/British film-maker, follows Palestinian schoolteacher Basem (Saleh Bakri) who struggles to accommodate his commitment to political resistance with his attempts to befriend and provide emotional support to a student Adam (Muhammad Abed El Rahman) as well as deal with a blossoming romance with an English volunteer school worker (Imogen Poots).
Filmed in the West Bank, it is a slow-burning drama which explores the injustices, and the lack of recourse, faced by Palestinians. When Adam watches his brother Yacoub (Mahmoud Bakri who is Saleh’s youngest brother) being shot dead by an Israeli settler who had been setting fire to their olive trees, he is gripped by hatred and the desire for revenge, and even more so when the killer gets off scot-free.
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