Waiting

'We Palestinians have the feeling of not being in control of our destiny. The hope of a possible solution comes around regularly, but has fallen apart and then we just start waiting again. Waiting has become an integral part of our lives. It's at the root of our entire being,' says Rashid Masharawi. The Palestinian film maker, who himself grew up in a refugee camp in Gaza and at present is unable to return to Ramallah, where he runs a film and cultural centre, uses his time waiting to make the film Waiting. With a healthy dose of humour and irony, Masharawi portrays the story of the film director Ahmad, who has allowed himself to be persuaded before his planned departure from the Palestinian territories first to select actors for the new (fictitious) Palestinian National Theatre. He goes with a cameraman and female TV presenter to refugee camps in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. This is followed by the often hilarious encounters between the indifferent director and the eager yet usually untalented actors, played by real inhabitants of the camps, who are asked by Ahmad to play someone who is waiting. While Waiting is not a political pamphlet, but more a film about humanity, the drama retains a political undertone in the light of the very sensitive conflict between Israel and Palestine.