Enas Muthaffar: Simply put, I'm a filmmaker

The separation wall as a 'Naqba'

Her first independent short film after graduating from the Higher Institute of Cinema, in Cairo, with BA in film directing, entitled East to West, depicts her family's move from the house she was born in as Israel's separation wall is being built, effectively reformulating the boundaries of Jerusalem and forcing her family to decide which side they are to live on. "It was hard for my father to pack, but this time, he told me, 'I am at least able to pack, we didn't have this chance in Yaffa in 1948'."

"The Wall is a Naqba [catastrophe]. I was so shocked when the wall was first built and to this day. It's a true catastrophe."

Paradise Now

Muthaffar worked on the film she describes as having "opened up a lot of opportunities for Palestinian film" during the height of the Second Intifada. The film started shooting in Nablus, where in 2002, Israeli incursions were a part Palestinians' daily lives.

"We had trouble ... Israeli tanks and the shelling were part of our daily lives. But this affected the actors, the ambiance, the acting itself." For a number of reasons, the crew could no longer shoot in Nablus and was forced to continue the film in Nazarath.

"The making of the film is a film in itself. It was risky, but it was all part of the story. Leaving Nablus was heartbreaking."

The City that Israel forgot

A World Apart in 15 Minutes, one of Enas' latest short films, shows Palestinian-American director Annemarie Jacir [Salt of this Sea] lost in an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Jerusalem, asking for directions to Ramallah. The film, done in one take, shows an accumulative of Israeli reactions towards the Palestinian city of Ramallah - some of whom thought that it was two hours away.

"The concept started out as a joke - with the thought of me getting lost," she says. Often, landmarks in east Jerusalem, such as the American Colony, are not seen as being on the Palestinian side, she said, which prompted Muthaffar to ask "What if I went further?"

"It was an experiment into peoples' reactions. And particularly, peoples' first reactions are the most honest. Annemarie has an American accent so we didn't anticipate the reactions we got. I was shocked myself. People thought we talking about the Ramada Hotel!"

"Roger Cohen said it best, 'a major Palestinian city is erased from Israelis' mental maps'." The final scene sees Annemarie being invited to a garden party by a resident of the Jewish-Orthodox neighborhood, who quickly revokes her invitation after she asks for directions to Ramallah.

"After that shot, we were done. We got the film. End shot."

The Right of Return through film

Annemarie Jacir's latest film, Salt of this Sea, discussed the Palestinian right of return through a Palestinian-American refugee's attempts to seek out her old family home in Yaffa, which is now lived in by an Israeli. "I cried when I read the script. My father is a refugee from Yaffa, and he was unwell at the time. He had always told me how important it was for him to go back. Shooting in Suba - a destroyed village - was inspirational for me. In the film, in the house in SUBA, we put a sign up that said 'home sweet home.' For many of the crew, it was an opportunity to briefly experience the right of return. It didn't feel like we were making a film."

"The right of return is part of the Palestinian narrative - it is about everybody. If we keep fragmenting our identity we're not going to get anywhere. Salt of this sea was an important film for Palestinians here to see. It awakened a pain - very hard film - Salt of this Sea woke up a pain."

The Surreal Occupation

Her most recent work, OccupaZion, is a short film incorporating a surrealist element. The film depicts a world where Israelis live under Palestinian occupation, while a Brecht-like dancer descends into a state of complete incomprehension as each aspect of the occupation is exposed. "The film deals with 'What ifs.' Sometimes I fail to understand why Israelis don't see that the problem is not them being Jewish but rather, the occupation itself."

"Some people got the film. When it was screened in France, a Jewish person approached me and said 'this film is for us' and that was it exactly. The film was not for Palestinians."

While Muthaffar asserts that this film in particular was not for a Palestinian audience, she adds that the film depicts everyone's - including the Palestinians' - inability to comprehend the occupation. "Well, everything is surreal here."