Palestinian film on Israeli prison abuses screened in Amman

AMMAN —  Palestinian film “Sataer Al Atma”, which depicts the brutality of Israeli prisons, was screened for the first time in Jordan on Saturday on the occasion of the 10th annual Jordanian Detainees Day, marked on October 20. 

The film follows the story of Amer, a Palestinian detainee who undergoes five years of interrogation and torture at a prison run by the Israeli occupation. 

It is based on Palestinian author Waleed Al Hodaly’s novel by the same name, which translates to “The Curtains of Darkness”.

According to the film’s director, Mohammad Farhan Al Karmi, Hodaly incorporated experiences from his own 12-year detention in Israeli prisons into his novel, as well as stories told by other Palestinian, Jordanian and Arab detainees. 

“The film tries to depict the horrific reality of how the Zionist occupation deals with Palestinian captives. We tried to portray the gruesome methods of torture in Zionist prisons and their ways of inflicting emotional and physical pain onto Palestinians, as described by the author,” the director said.

Karmi mentioned that the location of the film set, at Al Faraa Prison, held special significance for the film’s cast and crew, given that some of them had been detained by the Israelis there. 

“Most of the actors in the film, including myself, have been detained for a period of time in Zionist imprisonment,” he noted.

The one-hour feature shows examples of the tactics practised by Israeli wardens in order to pit prisoners against each other and get them to confess to their alleged crimes. 

This “unavoidable and prevalent” aspect of the prison system led to some prisoners being referred to as “birds” or spies who get insider information from prisoners and pass it on to prison wardens, according to the director.

The film screening comes as part of a project called “In Our Detainees’ Service”, which seeks to raise awareness of the “inhumane methods of torture and suffering” that detainees face in occupied lands, said Karmi. 

He added: “We have to keep in mind that our land is worth fighting for no matter how many martyrs we lose and how many detainees suffer torture and humiliation.”

The event was organised by the Jordan Engineers Association and the Association for Jordanian Detainees in Zionist Imprisonment.