LFF 2020: 200 Meters
lff 2020Ameen Nayfeh crafts what is essentially a Middle Eastern political thriller road movie for his feature debut, 200 Metres. Having previously practiced the style of documentary, Nayfeh shows skill at adapting to the fictional world. However, he very clearly grounds his characters in reality as well as the ongoing situation between Israel and Palestine that is evidently important to the director.
Ali Suliman plays Mustafa, a Palestinian man who is married to an Israeli woman (Lana Zreik). Mustafa chooses to stay at home, within the borders of Palestine with his mother, while his wife and family are located just two hundred metres across the border. After Mustafa has obtained a permit to work in Israel, he spends time with his family, but when he is stuck back in Palestine, he communicates with his children by flicking a light on and off.
Bad luck befalls Mustafa, as he loses out on work due to an expired permit. The same day, he learns his son has been hit by a car and is hospitalised. With no legal way to cross the border, Mustafa hitches an illegal ride with a bunch of strangers in order to be reunited with his family.
The journey is not without its hardship, obviously. The title itself reflects the irony of what Mustafa must go through, simply to see his own son. Suliman captures the panic-stricken father fairly well – he’s incredibly likable, but often goes from zero to a hundred. No sooner than he is bonding over dumb videos with the young Rami (Mahmoud Abu Eita) – who may be an intended facsimile of his son – than he is fighting with the man who organised the crossing in the first place.
The politics of the situation are also handled well. The exact relationships between Palestine and Israel may not be common knowledge, but Nayfeh does a great job of covering some necessary points, without ever exposing them or dumbing them down. Most of this is achieved through Anna Unterberger’s German filmmaker character, Anne. One of the handful of people on the border crossing journey, she claims to be in the country to film a wedding, but, in reality, is tied up to her fellow passengers more than she lets on. It’s a clever plot device that stops things from getting too confusing. Plus, Unterberger stands out amongst the male-dominated cast.
The journey is often frantic and intense – well-crafted episodes with checkpoint guards and local youths only serve to further heighten the urgency of Mustafa crossing the border. As the drama is played so well, it makes the appeal of a warm, familial ending even more satisfactory. The end scene is sure to coax a smile, but also highlight the trouble that led up to it.