I wish I had the tools and the ability of Mais Darwazeh to have my grand mother on camera before she passed away.
It was a nice experience watching the feature length documentary ‘Take me Home’ of Mais in Al Balad theatre yesterday. The documentary which mainly focused on the life of Mais’s Tata and her interaction with her social and political environment through the length of her life’s years has been brilliantly shot in a way that is close to the hearts.
Mais’s Tata, is like my own Tata’s and a lot of other Palestinian women who had to endure the hardship of political circumstances in the region, from living under the Othmanian dictatorship, to being forced into leaving their homes in Palestine and adopt a new life in a nearby Arabic country, then living the national dream of getting their land back, and facing newly emerged dictatorships in the Arab countries they moved to live in.
A line in Tata’s talk quote my attention. She was talking about a historian in her family who was optimistic of a better future for the Arab nation. She said that she is not optimistic but he was. Being a historian, he knew that nations do rise and fall. She continued by saying that Historians must know better. I tell her, yes indeed Tata, they know better 🙂
Mais’s Tata has a brilliant sense of humor. She caught the audiance attention all through the movie with her ability to drop sarcastic comments here and there. In an event of where she was hearing the news of the fights between fateh and hamas, she sighted and sarcastically said in a syrian’s accent ‘Eh shoo 3alena, we hoped for a country and a leader, and now we will have 2 countries and 2 leaders! hurrayyyyy’
It was Mais’s first length feature documentary. It was wise of her to pick the life of her grand mother. I wish more people do like her. Our old people are a treasure of information and living documents of an area of time where a lot took place. Mais feared to lose such chance, and moved with her camera to capture her Tata’s memory. I envy her, for I always cherished the story of my grandmother and her amazing story telling capabilities.
Mais, you have done a great job. Congratulations! My regards to your grandmother, may God grant her a long life 🙂