Through the Veil of Exile

Though the portrayal of three women, the film explores Palestinian society and both the psychological and social consequences of exile. Dallal, a thirty-three year old Muslim and a former militant, spent 12 years in jail. To some men, she seems far too independent – for others, she is a grandmother figure. She is not regarded as a woman by any of them. Marie, a sixty year old Christian, married a Muslim journalist. She was rejected by the Protestant community for that very reason, but she has never been accepted by the radical Palestinians either. Her children torn between opposite identities, have chosen antagonistic camps. Oum Mohammad is a rural fifty-year old widow. She was forcibly married when she was 13 and she bore eight children. A pious and illiterate woman, she has no interest in the struggle carried out by the younger generation whose revolutionary goals obliterated the importance of their land. In Oum Mohammad’s opinion, a strip of land is superior to women’s dignity.