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G21 INTERVIEWS: HIAM ABBASS - Media Editor Brad Balfour talks with the Palestinean actress who worked as technical advisor on Steven Spielberg's controversial new film, "Munich".
New York, NY, USA - During this last year, Palestian actress Hiam Abbass has enjoyed being an ongoing presence on the screen. She appeared as a primary figure in Eran Riklis' tough look at life as a Druze in the Golan Heights, "The Syrian Bride" and had a less significant role in another provocative film, Hany Abu-Assad's "Paradise Now." Not only that but she co-starred in Amos Gitai's latest film with Natalie Portman, "Free Zone."
Yet the film that has put her in the middle of the most dramatic debate and, indirectly, in the spotlight, has been Steven Spielberg's controversial new film, "Munich." Though Abbas had one of the few female roles -- it was a relatively small one -- as the wife of an alleged Black September collaborator. Through her introduction to Speilberg, she joined his team behind the camera.
As she explained, "I had only been hired to do a small part -- to work two weeks at the beginning and two weeks at the end but after I met Steven he asked me to stay on as a technical advisor helping to make sure that things that were accurate whether they were Israeli or Palestinian."
Abbass got significant billing and a chance to work closely with Spielberg throughout the entire four months they were shooting his most controversial movie yet. "In meeting Steven, it created a great relationship and he asked me to be a coach for the actors. as to whether they would do certain things in the right way in Hebrew or Arabic. I tech advised on that period, the language and culture."
G21: Does that put a feeling of responsibility on her shoulders in some way?
HA: Not really. What I dislike is representing "whoever, whenever, wherever." For me, I am an actress, and I get seduced by certain roles that I feel like doing with different directors that I like to work with. That's the way it goes for me. We can talk about what that kind of responsibility means but before being a Palestinian, I am an actress without an identity that follows me all my life.
G21: The directors you have worked with focus on the individual to tell about larger issues. Is that what attracts you to their scripts?
HA: It's part of what I am in a way; I really believe that the individual journey of a person brings more influence and importance to history if it is told in that way because once you get it out of its own locality, suddenly it becomes universal, and if it becomes universal, it is easier for everybody to understand even if we don't have answers on the political and social surroundings of that character. At least we live the emotions that the character is living. I believe in that kind of work where, emotionally, you get involved in your individuality to be able to bring a story up to a largest public that can identify themselves to certain parts of your story.
G21: The strength comes from your own experience?
HA: My childhood. I think that, in acting, we refer a lot to our personal stories to be able to feed the role that we are in. I was born Palestinian in a country that I had to belong to called Israel.
At the same time, I had a conflict with that country being the first generation of Palestinian parents who were refugees after 1948. I like the complexity because I was born into it. In the Six Day War of 1967, I was only seven years old and didn't understand what that whole war was about because growing up, I understood that we had family and very close relatives in Lebanon and Syria fighting the people I had to live with -- the Israelis.
This is what is particular about the Palestinians in Israel. We are not a part of the fight like the Palestinians in the West Bank and in Gaza because we are not occupied and we are not asking for our country over there even if Palestine becomes Palestine near the state of Israel. My whole identity was a big question for me when I was young. That war left me a very bad taste in my childhood and then during my teenage years I was dreaming of liberty.
In a society that obliges you to live a certain way and respect the rules and be an individual trying to have you own thoughts. How do you make people respect your personal choices was another struggle for me. At 15, I dreamed of one thing: be myself and live whatever I wanted to live as an individual and as a woman because I wasn't equal to the men in my own society. I grew up hoping that one day I will be that kind of person. It happens in films, which is great.
G21: Your language skills must be a real asset.
HA: That has followed me all my life. I speak four languages. The language of the country, my mother language which is Arabic that I was brought up with, and then English, and then you open to the world and you ask yourself "what am I?" concerning this place and the history. [And French.]
At some point, I understood that it was too hard for me to continue creating and living [in Israel] because in that place you have to daily justify who you are and why you are what you are. You just want to live, you want to work and you want to act. I was a photographer, so I just wanted to take photos. I didn't liked to be stopped everywhere -- to be asked to give my identity card.
I decided to leave and went to London and from London I went to Paris where I learned my fourth language. Today I have an open window on different cultures in the world, which really suits me. Perhaps my strength comes from all these different cultures, which gives me a largest understanding of the other and that I demand from the other at the same time or the characters that I want to defend in the movies I get involved in.
G21: Did the French experience teach something unique?
HA: Not just about the French cinema, but cinema. When I got to Paris, I would see three films a day in order to know more about the history of cinema. I saw a lot of old French movies, a lot of American and European movies. I also had access to Arabic cinema which I didn't have access to in Israel where they had once a week an Egyptian movie on the Israeli TV, which was commercial stuff that they feed you with. I realized that there was a great Arabic cinema that had existed and that I had suddenly the opportunity to know. Paris became the gate of knowledge of what happened in cinema in the world that was surrounding me.
G21: When did you get the opportunity to go back and make films with Israeli or Palestinian filmmakers?
HA: Palestinians directors knew about me because I played in '95 in a Palestinian film called "Haifa" by Rashid Masharawi. He was the first Palestinian director to offer to me a role in his movie. The first Israeli film I played in was "The Syrian Bride" two years ago.
G21: Was there a difference between how a Palestinian or Israeli director worked?
HA: No, a director is a director, he has his way of working, he has his individuality and his universe, and you just have to go and explore it with him.
It is not really about being Israeli or being Palestinian or being American or French. It is being the person he is and the way you work with him. For example, with Eran, I was very comfortable woring with him. He had a very creative way in understanding the story. You see that in the way it was filmed that he was very much into it as well.
It was very interesting working with Amos because he creates the movie while working with the actors. When he starts a movie, he knows where he is going to get to but he doesn't know exactly how to do it because he doesn't really follow a script. He doesn't make his film in a classical way. It's an experience with him to discover this way.
Rashid Masharawi, for example, is very much into what he lived and he wants to bring it to the audience. The French directors I worked with were mostly people who did films before, and they came from different schools. I worked with this Tunisian woman. They each had their own approach.
G21: And with Hany?
HA: I told him, "I want to be a loving mother; I want to be a human mother in this film." Women are funny about these kinds of stories especially in these communities. If the father is dead and the son is 10 years old, I would go more for something like he is a man in my life.
Socially, I wouldn't be able to live a relationship with another man. So I would fantasize on my eldest son being the man of my life. He said, "Yes great Hiam, let's do it like this!" but then because it was a small role and a limited role, we had to stick to the things that were more important in it.
G21: Where do you live now?
HA: I live in Paris.
G21: Do you find it different, depending on the language you speak?
HA: Often people ask me in which language I think. I think in the language that I am communicating with at that moment. I can really switch between different languages. I dream in all languages that I speak. When I am in France, I communicate in French so I think in French. Arabic is a very important language for me. It is a part of my identity. It is a language that I really love; I read a lot in Arabic. I love Arabic literature. It is a way for me to be connected with my identity as a Palestinian.
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