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SATURDAY April 3 , 2004 - Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels April 2, 2004 Bitter foes collaborate on picture By Molly Hollenbach Tidings Reviewer "The Olive Harvest," now playing at the Ashland Independent Film Festival, is a Palestinian film made with an Israeli crew and Palestinian actors. On the surface it is simply a love story and a family drama about two brothers who love the same woman. The photography is stunning, the music hauntingly beautiful. On another level the story is a powerful metaphor for the Palestinians and Israelis - the sons of Abraham - who love the same land. On another it is a critique of patriarchy. But what is really special is that in this story, the land, too, has a voice. In Palestinian village life, the olive harvest is a special time when grown children who've moved to the city come back to share in the work. In the film, an ancient olive tree both symbolizes and embodies the family's deep connection to their land. The father worries that the family tradition will not continue unless at least one of his daughters marries a man who loves the land as much as he does. The older sister is committed to her social work in the city. It is therefore the younger daughter upon whom the father pins his hopes. He commands her to marry Mazen, a neighbor, although she has already secretly promised to marry Mazen's brother, Taher. The Olive Harvest paints a delicate portrait of the relationship of the two sisters, Raeda and Arren. Raeda, the younger, has stayed in the village and has remained strictly protected against contact with men outside the family. She is ill-equipped to sort through her own feelings toward the passionate, fiery Taher or his calm, poetic older brother. Her older sister tries to counsel her, and yet she doesn't have much more experience to go on. Such innocence contrasts markedly with our American culture of early sex and cynicism, but the yearning for a loving relationship strikes a deep, universal chord. Director Hanna Elias says he understands women's experience so well from growing up around his two grandmothers, mother, and sisters. He understands the importance of the olive trees from his own experience, too. Elias, a Palestinian, was born in Galilee, attended Israeli schools, and speaks fluent Hebrew as well as English, Arabic, and Aramaic. He studied film at UCLA and returned to the Middle East as a consultant for the U.N. on media training for Palestinians. "Every day I passed through olive groves in the West Bank near Ramallah," he says, and a kind of spiritual encounter with an olive tree was part of the inspiration to make this film. "I look at the olive trees like I look at a human being," Elias says. "I can tell where is the front and where is the back - because trees have a front and back, just like we do - and I may take a lot of time watching the trees, just like you would watch the people passing by if you're sitting in a cafe sipping coffee. So one day I was driving between Nablus and Ramallah and I saw this huge, incredibly ancient tree, and I stopped to look at it. I felt a strong presence, and I heard a voice asking me, 'Why have you left us?' There was no one else around. I knew the voice was from the tree. I said (in my head, mind you, not out loud), 'I didn't leave you.' And I knew I had to show my love for the trees somehow." Two months later, as he was walking in downtown Jerusalem, the idea for the film "just hit" him, and within five days he had found the director of photography, the crew, and the cast, and started shooting. It is fascinating to see a portrayal of normal daily life in a West Bank village, particularly at this time of intensified conflict. Israeli settlements are visible on the hill overlooking the olive groves, and the younger brother, Taher, is working through political channels to try to stop new settlements. Mazen has returned from 15 years in prison for setting fire to a settlement that would have destroyed the groves, but he now rejects violence. There is no sign of the suicide bombing and desperate rage that are tearing the region apart. This respite allows one to contemplate the underlying humanity on both sides of the struggle. "Palestinians are like any other people," Elias says. "They have great things and they're also weak, they fall in love, and they have their own ways of solving problems that are similar to other nations, yet particular to their environment." Elias chose an Israeli crew for his movie because he wanted to make a point about the way peace is made. It has to happen at the grassroots, he says. "I saw with my own eyes that we could live in peace, in 1997, when I worked on the first Israeli/Palestinian co-production of Sesame Street. It was a beautiful, rich experience. It was the time of the Oslo accord, a period of friendship that collapsed when Rabin was shot and killed." There's always a choice, he reiterates. "I have a decision whether to point at Israel and say how bad it is, or take a group of Israelis and make a really good experience. In this case, Israelis shot us and we made a great film, instead of they shoot us as soldiers, and we create with them a circle of mistrust and hate. It's always a decision: 'Which instrument would we like to use - the arms holding the camera or the arms that shoot and kill?'" Elias will be present at screenings at the Ashland Independent Film Festival on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday for discussion after the film. 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