Published: 28 March 2016
Last updated: 4 March 2024
Within the first three and a half minutes of Oriented, I found my interest piqued and assumptions challenged. Three Palestinian gay men in their mid twenties are preparing for a night out at Anna Loulou, a nightclub in Jaffa. One asks, ‘Will there be Jews there?’ There will be some. ‘But they are leftist. They support us. They are not coming to sing ‘“Viva la occupation.”’ A third voice answers, ‘Right, they are coming to save us.’ All three men laugh.
The scene is set for a deeply personal and authentic film that looks at the lives of these men and their individual struggles as Palestinians living in Israel, as gay men, as sons and as friends. It is during the time of the 2014 war in Gaza and the casual conversations between them capture the political, societal and familial struggles they navigate together.
It is true that they have found a degree of freedom in Tel Aviv that is not available in their conservative hometowns. And one of the strengths of the film is in the specific details of these three men’s lives, steeped in Palestinian experience yet translating into universal themes.
Naeem, who describes himself as ‘Palestinian, atheist, vegetarian and feminist’ has not yet come out to his parents, and it weighs heavily upon him. His parents try to understand why he doesn’t move back to the village, so that he can be near them when he finds a wife and has children. Supported by his friends, Naeem struggles to explain that he has outgrown much of what the village represents, that he needs a freedom that the village cannot provide. His sister adds that the village doesn’t offer what she needs either. We relate the circumstances to conservative small towns everywhere, and their tendency to stifle with petty judgements and gossip.
As a mother of adult children I was taken by this sister’s argument to her parents. ‘You’re missing the point. You think that we want to leave because we want to escape our families? He’s happy and you’re interpreting it as a loss for you.’
Tension builds in the audience because we see that there is one important piece of information that Naeem is withholding, so his parents can’t truly make sense of his choices.
Our cultural assumptions are challenged, for example, when the group goes to Amman to attend a rock concert. Fadi says that this is their ‘gateway to the Arab world’. It is a place where they feel truly free. Khadar, the third member of this group recounts that Israeli Jews are always telling gay Palestinians that if they don’t like it in Israel, they should move to an Arab country and see how well they do then. ‘Look at me,’ Khadar says. ‘I’m in the middle of Amman, at a really hipster looking party, and I’m having a blast. What do you say to that!’
The young men speak in Hebrew, woven with Arabic and smattered with English. Their language represents so beautifully the worlds they jump between. Should they leave or should they stay? Should Naeem come out, or stay in the closet? Should Khadar date a Jew, or is that dating the enemy? As Palestinian as these dilemmas are, they also speak to us all. At its core, Oriented is about assertive and articulate young people who insist on their right to define their identity any way they want.
It is the humanity in this unpretentious, truth-telling documentary that is its greatest strength.
This The Jewish Independent article may be republished if acknowledged thus: ‘This article first appeared on www.thejewishindependent.com.au and is reprinted with permission.’
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