A Palestinian school teacher (Saleh Bakri) struggles to reconcile his life-threatening commitment to political resistance with his emotional support for one of his students (Muhammad Abed El Rahman) and the chance of a new romantic relationship with a volunteer worker (Imogen Poots).

The Garden Cinema View:

The Teacher is released in the UK the very same week that a school in the West Bank is besieged by the Israeli army, its Palestinian pupils unable to go home. The film charts the countless ways in which the occupation has dehumanised Palestinians, and the generational traumatic toll it takes. Nabulsi skillfully portrays its impact on the average Palestinian through a rousing narrative, with just enough context and references to real life events to reach and emotionally connect with a wide audience.

The indignity and all-encompassing violence of the occupation permeates every aspect of life, the strain on Bassem’s marriage just one illustration of its domestic micropolitical costs. This is only Nabulsi’s second foray into filmmaking, following BAFTA award-winning short The Present, which in the same vein depicts the way in which Israeli checkpoints and settlements have turned the most routine, menial task - buying a new fridge - into a Herculean and perilous feat. Once again reprising his role as a beaten down dad, Saleh Bakri is as ever eminently watchable.

Cast:
Saleh Bakri, Imogen Poots, Muhammad Abed Elrahman