'Farha' director: 'I’m not afraid, to tell the truth'

Farha’s filmmaker Darin Sallam rejected the pressure after the film depicted events of the 1948 Nakba, where the Israeli forces murdered a family, including a baby.

During an interview with Arab News, Sallam said, “I’m not afraid, to tell the truth. We need to do this because films live, and we die.

This is why I decided to make this film. Not because I’m political, but because I’m loyal to the story that I heard.”

The film has vexed Israeli officials, who have slammed Farha and even threatened consequences for its airing.

“It’s crazy that Netflix decided to stream a movie whose whole purpose is to create a false pretense and incite against Israeli soldiers,” outgoing Israeli Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman said in a recent statement.

Sallam revealed her mother told her the story of a young girl locked up in her room amid the partition of Palestine in 1948.

“She was locked up by her father to protect her life,” Sallam recounts.

“She survived [the conflict] and she made it to Syria, where she met a Syrian girl and shared her story with her. This Syrian girl grew up, got married and had a child, and she shared the story with her daughter—and this daughter happened to be me.”