Saturday Matinees Preview: Adas Falasteen [Palestine Lentils] (2024)

Directors: Hamdi Khalil Elhusseini & Samar Taher Lulu

Running time: 8mins

Film festivals are expensive – and so they often struggle to break even, let alone make a profit. With submission fees often posing as the only dependable source of revenue that many festivals have access to, that can make granting waivers difficult.

Stories told by artists working on a shoe-string budget, or who are hit by censorship, or subjected to international sanctions, still need a platform, though. That’s why Indy Film Library’s Saturday Matinees series has returned for a seventh season.

Over this most recent run of matinees, IFL will be showcasing work from places where monetary and legal constraints have prevented the free and easy communication of their artistic or political visions.

The second film in our free-to-view programme is Adas Falasteen [Palestine Lentils], by Palestinian filmmakers Hamdi Khalil Elhusseini and Samar Taher Lulu. It is crucial that Palestine’s filmmakers and journalists continue to document what is going on in Gaza and the West Bank; and that the world does not look away – with crimes unfolding by the day, even amid a so-called ceasefire.

Here, the filmmakers focus on perhaps one of the defining aspects of the cruelty inflicted on Gaza’s civilians since the autumn of 2023 – while also tying subjects often obscured by claims of “complexity” to a universal theme all audiences can relate to: food. Adas Falasteen is prefaced by televised addresses of Israeli military leaders referring to Palestinians as “animals”, and declaring “a complete siege on Gaza” with “no electricity”, “no food” and “no water” – before following Khalil AlNajjar, a chef desperately trying to feed as many people as possible amid the forced starvation of his community.

Sitting in the comparative comfort of the Netherlands, the UK, or the US, there has been a concerted commodification of the chef. In the heart of capitalism, this is really the last acceptable vestige of popular art, where the sacred feeling people take from the creativity and nourishment that cooks in any setting must be transposed to the most abstracted and tone-deaf setting: the cooking contest. There, no greater honour can ever be done to a chef’s self-esteem than to either win the right to own their own restaurant selling fine dining to wealthy patrons (as with MasterChef), or the opportunity to cook at a lavish banquet of influential benefactors.

But as Chef Khalil AlNajjar sits calmly to discuss the crucial work he is doing, against odds stacked impossibly against him and his people, we are served a beautiful reminder of what it really means to feed someone. It is primarily an essentially human act of love, of care and support – and while much of what we consider “creative” or “artistic” might be dictated by the way food can move money, here we are also reminded that the “art” that really counts here, the magic at the heart of it, is to not only ensure those around us live, but even for the briefest of seconds amid an unfolding genocide, can savour that life. Khalil AlNajjar has limited ingredients, thanks to Israel’s brutally enforced blockade, but even working with lentil stew, he does more than simply boil and distribute – he draws flavours out with seasoning, he labours along with his huge staff to serve thousands – sometimes tens of thousands – of people with food which can comfort as well as sustain them.

Speaking about his efforts, the chef notably tears up. Surrounded by huge barrels, which he has used to save and sustain now-countless lives, he notes that when you feed someone “and they pray for you”, “this is not a normal moment”. In that moment, you could “cry for joy” or out of devastation that “your people are dying”. But asked if the horrific events of recent months have caused him to lose his love of cooking, he insists that now he and his team have more energy, more passion, because with every meal they are delivering a message. This goes beyond survival; it is also resistance.

This culinary tradition goes back throughout human history: those with the least, those actively dispossessed and persecuted, ultimately create the dishes which go on to be understood as the most delicious, and innovative. Jewish cuisine can be found at the heart of many of the mealtime favourites we now take for granted, including fish and chips. Italy’s cucina povera was born from the nation’s poorest living from scraps; but resolving to make the most of them in a way that ultimately surpassed anything the ruling class was indulging in at lavish banquets. Its food imbued with care, resilience, and ultimately defiance. In a scenario where survival is rebellion, surviving well is perhaps an even more powerful statement.

I hope that playing this film as the latest Saturday Matinee helps Hamdi Khalil Elhusseini and Samar Taher Lulu to further highlight the lives of Palestinians; to help more people to draw commonalities between the people of Gaza and the West Bank, and to illustrate the painting of them as “animals” for the obscene, absurd, fascistic rhetoric that it is. And I also pray that once you’ve seen this film, every time you sit down to a meal, you think of Khalil AlNajjar, and those barrels of lentils. Not just food, but hope.

The film will be available to view for free in full from 09:00 UK time on Saturday the 07th of February, until the end of the weekend, via our Saturday Matinees theatre page. Viewers will also be invited to rate the film out of five, to help determine the winner of this Saturday Matinees season.

As the film is still trying to gain access to other festivals, the page is password protected. Use the code IFLMATINEE26 to access the film.

Stay tuned for our final film next week!