Arts & Culture

‘The Present’ Film Depicting Palestinian Struggle Wins BAFTA Award

‘The Present’ Film Depicting Palestinian Struggle Wins BAFTA Award

‘The Present’ film.

Palestinian-British filmmaker Farah Nabulsi’s short film “The Present”, which depicts Palestinian struggle, has won the award for Best Short Film at the 2021 British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) ceremony on Saturday.

Co-written by Nabulsi and Hind Shoufani, the film tells the story about a father and daughter in the Israeli-occupied West Bank trying to buy a wedding anniversary gift for the girl’s mother, which turns into an impossible task due to the various checkpoints they must go through across Palestine’s West Bank.

“For anyone who has seen this film… You would know why I dedicate this award to the people of Palestine,” Farah Nabulsi said in her speech.

 

The film was released on Netflix on 18 March 2021, and has been previously nominated for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film.

After starting to work in the film industry in 2015, Nabulsi produced four short films on Palestine “to give voice to the silenced and build empathy,” she says in her own words. In the ‘Nightmare of Gaza’, Nabulsi tells the narrative of a woman in the streets of Gaza suffering the consequences and the devastation after the bombs were dropped.

“It’s just the appreciation of what this can do — allowing me to continue my work and continue to tell stories to raise the global social conscience,” Nabulsi tells Esquire Middle East.

In Photos: Dive Into Africa's Wonders and Stories
The Maadi Bakery Bringing Lebanon to Cairo

Subscribe to our newsletter


Arts & Culture

More in Arts & Culture

Review: ‘Mother Country’ and the Unique Female Arab Protagonists of Etaf Rum

Farah Sadek10 June 2023

The Legacy of Menhat Helmy: An Egyptian Pioneer of Graphics and Printmaking

Farah Rafik10 June 2023

Meet Ashraf Sewailam: The Egyptian Bass-Baritone Taking the Opera World by Storm

Farah Sadek9 June 2023

5 Local Concerts to Catch in Cairo This June

Farah Rafik5 June 2023

From Khartoum to Cannes: Five Recent Internationally Acclaimed Sudanese Films

Amina Abdel-Halim4 June 2023

In Photos: The Egyptian Cinematographers Taking Stills to New Heights

Farah Rafik3 June 2023

The Egyptian Film-Maker Bringing Down the Patriarchy with Satire

Dina Khadr29 May 2023

5 Hidden Gems in Cairo Worth Exploring in 2023

Dina Khadr28 May 2023