Inch'Allah

Produced by the same team behind the Academy Award–nominated Incendies and Monsieur Lazhar and screened as a Special Presentation at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival®, Inch’Allah is an intense, politically charged drama that explores the impact and ramifications of Israel’s separation barrier on the divided populations of the West Bank. Pointedly, the film does so through the perspective of an outsider: Chloé (Evelyne Brochu, Café de Flore, Polytechnique), a Quebec doctor who works in a women’s health clinic on the Palestinian side of the barrier but resides in an apartment on the Israeli side. Though Chloé has adjusted to the daily grind of passing through the heavily guarded checkpoints to get to and from work, she is also constantly aware of the simmering violence that surrounds her.

Chloé’s perception of the bizarre, bisected world in which she finds herself is further shaded by the friendships she makes on either side of the barrier. Ava (Sivan Levy), a neighbour in Chloé’s apartment building who is serving her mandatory military service as a checkpoint guard, becomes Chloé’s frequent drinking companion, the two women routinely going out for nights on the town. On the other side, Chloé becomes close to one of her patients, Rand (Sabrina Ouazani, Of Gods and Men), a young pregnant woman who lives in poverty, picking through garbage in search of reusable items. Rand’s family, especially her older brother Faysal (Yousef Sweid), is thoroughly committed to the cause of Palestinian liberation, and willing to take whatever measures are necessary to bring it about.

Director Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette approaches this charged material with remarkable maturity and unerring skill, cleverly showing how Chloé’s relative freedom of movement offers her a unique overview of the dilemma while highlighting her status as an outsider. As she is repeatedly reminded, this is not her war, nor her suffering to bear, but she instinctively wants to help and tries to build bridges, and as her relationship with Rand grows, she is drawn further into her world. But when Rand goes into labour outside an army checkpoint — in a scene that forcefully brings home the heartbreaking absurdity of life in the West Bank — Chloé is compelled to make a choice that has enormous
repercussions.

CRITICAL NOTES

"No one, onscreen or off, is spared the intensity of this provocative drama." —T’Cha Dunlevy, Montreal Gazette

Director: Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette
Cast: Evelyne Brochu, Sabrina Ouazani and Sivan Levy
Year: 2012
Runtime: 102 minutes
Country: Canada
Language: English, French, Arabic, Hebrew
Distributor: Entertainment One


Ratings: ON NR / BC NR / AB NR / SK NR / MB NR / QC NR / Maritmes NR

SCREENING DATES 

Date	Circuit Centre	Location

This film has no active screening dates.