Wajib(Annemarie Jacir 2017)France

Reviewed by Zinan He. Viewed at AFI Fest 2017.

It is a Palestine drama movie which was released in the year of 2017. It was directed by Annemarie Jacir. There are two main characters in the movie one is Shadi who played the role of a son and the other is Abu who has played the role of a father. The movie is translated as a “duty” which means the responsibilities of dad and son. The movie is based on the relationship between a dad and son, and also it shows the clash between pragmatism and idealism. There is a debate between a person who is abroad from Palestine and someone who form Palestine, so there are a lot of agree-disagree movement in the movie.
The whole movie is all about dad and son long-distance relationship as son lives abroad from Palestine, but on the other hand, dad lives in Palestine. Abu is a school teacher and he is an architect as their profession is different, so their lifestyle is different as well as there is the generation gap between those two, so there is a lot of heated conversation between them. They were finally backed after very long time for a wedding. As Shadi was at Rome so came back from Rome to Palestine so that he attend and could help for the preparation of his sister wedding Amal.
It is almost a road movie as dad and son spend plenty of time on the road trip by driving through different destination in the place called Nazareth. They were sitting side by side and discussing various types of things they were very polite with each other as a stranger, but there is a time when their conversation gets sometimes heated when they don’t agree with each other. There are many incidents in the movie where at some point there a strange competition between father and the son for example on the wedding ceremony Shadi shows off his prize catch for families with an eligible daughter. Even though he was in Palestine he has gone back to Rome which he considered it as an achievement. Like when Aub criticisms the way his son dresses and the hairstyle of his son who got a man bun his hairstyle. On the other hand, son also comments that “dad you are too old fashions you don’t know anything about fashion and new generation.” Anyone who is watching the movie can realize that the conversation they are having has good, well-meaning parents, where they find it irritated behind the saintly patience. There is no certain political influence in the movie but we can overhear the radio on the car as it speaks that Israel has control of exports and the city of Nazareth is neglected as we can see in the movie the condition of the city is very bad where there was rubbish piled up in the streets, the traffic in the city is impossible, and anything minor aggravations can heat up or raise the conflict between people.
Wajib is moreover is a superb movie which has fewer features as well as less storyline. He has described how distance can bring direct effect on the life of the person or his family. The movie was so simple to understand as it was as basically trying us to know the importance of family and they have to stay close as well the distanced between them can bring the difference. The director of the movie was successful to show the fragile father/son relationship, and he also acknowledges that though they have the difference with each other, they are somehow connected with each other. At the end he also wants us to notice that though they may have some difference between them that won’t takes them apart.