{"id":7644,"date":"2022-03-21T07:54:18","date_gmt":"2022-03-21T05:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldmarkaz\/?p=7644"},"modified":"2024-04-21T11:55:59","modified_gmt":"2024-04-21T09:55:59","slug":"palestine-in-pieces-hany-abu-assads-hudas-salon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldmarkaz\/palestine-in-pieces-hany-abu-assads-hudas-salon\/","title":{"rendered":"Palestine in Pieces: Hany Abu-Assad\u2019s Huda\u2019s Salon<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"
Huda’s Salon<\/em> is available in select U.S. and European theatres and everywhere you rent movies. In the U.S. visit this site<\/a> for tickets.<\/h5>\n
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Jordan Elgrably<\/h4>\n

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Maisa Abd Elhadi as “Reem” in Huda’s Salon<\/em> (photo courtesy IFC Films\/an IFC Films Release).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Palestine. Israel.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just a matter of living under apartheid \u2014 it\u2019s living with treachery, not knowing who you can trust.<\/p>\n

For a couple in Bethlehem, their lives are not only defined by apartheid, but by the daily threat of being shot at by trigger-happy settlers, police or soldiers, who rarely pay a price for murder. And everyone is subject to being spied upon, or being turned.<\/p>\n

To be clear, Bethlehem is in Palestine, not Israel, but Israel has carved up the occupied West Bank into three areas of control; Bethlehem, which is about 10 kilometers south of Jerusalem\/Al Quds, is in the so-called\u00a0“Area A” zone administered by the Palestinian Authority.<\/p>\n

While Israel denies the validity of the February 1, 2022 Amnesty International report<\/a> on how its apartheid system controls Palestinians, it nonetheless exercises control<\/a> over all Palestinians inside Israel and the West Bank, while keeping Gaza locked down in a siege that is now nearly 15 years old.<\/p>\n

In his latest feature, Huda\u2019s Salon<\/em>, Hany Abu-Assad returns to his central subject, Palestine, or the fragments of it. The movie begins with a chatty conversation between Huda (Manal Awad), a hairdresser, and Reem (Maisa Abd Elhadi), a young woman getting her hair done, while her infant dozes nearby. The story quickly takes a dark turn, and one immediately wonders how much of what follows is reality, and how much is fiction?<\/p>\n

Abu-Assad, who wrote the script, confesses, \u201cThe story is based on real events. It did happen in Palestine that secret service officers used certain hair salons to drug women, then put them in an awkward position and take Polaroids, so that they could blackmail them into becoming traitors against Palestine. And they used vulnerable women in Arab society, women who wouldn\u2019t get support from their husbands or families\u2026The film is based on a real story, but I want to be clear that these characters are still fictional.\u201d<\/p>\n