Cinema/TVCulture

‘The Wanted 18’: The cows who endangered Israeli national security

Filmmakers Amer Shomali and Paul Cowan showed their mix of documentary and stop-motion animation in "The Wanted 18" documentary at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, after it closely competed for the best film award in Toronto Film Festival this year.
 
The movie narrates a real story that happened during the First Intifada (1987-1993) over one of the resistance methods used by Palestinians in Beit Sahour city. The residents tried to rely on themselves to establish an independent economy through purchasing a herd of 18 cows to produce their needs of milk and its different derivatives, in order not to be under control of the Israelis when curfew and blockade are imposed. However, when Israeli army found out about the project, it decided it would destroy the farm and confiscate the cows, which had suddenly become a danger to the occupation security. The army then started looking for the cows, who were wanted by the Israeli occupation.
 
The movie faces several challenges, starting from being a simple true story with not so many details, as well as an absence of scenes of the incidents. Making such film dependant on only witness accounts for 75 minutes could bore the viewer, even if the story was funny. However, the filmmakers were able to surpass that obstacle, offering it in a mix between cartoons, to show the dramatic and humorous side of the story, filmed scenes and documentary interviews with the heros. This places you before a different and excellent issue that smoothly takes you from one scene to another. Cartoon was the best part of the story, given that it entails humor, which made the filmmakers take advantage of this to involve the cows in the incidents. Irony was clear when cows learned to hate the Palestinians at the Israeli farm where they described them as "Palestinian saboteurs." However, situation changed when they lived with the Palestinians and begun to sympathize with them, helping them in their attempts to hide.
 
The story also showed many forms of resistance that residents of the city lived, when they decided to adapt to the situations but through their own way, they were able to create a parallel society that is able to impose its lifestyle itself. It was a society that could coexist, despite harassment of the invaders. It also showed clear images of unity and resistance, which made them refuse to pay taxes for the occupation and adapt to the most difficult circumstances as kind of support for the intifada. The movie showed lack of power and weak intelligence of the occupation, which hung photos of the cows on the streets for being missing. It also broke into houses looking for the cows. The army’s mission turned from search for terrorists to cows, which became a danger on the Israeli national security. The film mixes between the cows story and the daily suffering of Palestinians as a result of the occupation of the Israelis. Toward the end, the film showed that the occupation was able to destroy the farm project. At the same time, it showed the residents of the city destroyed by “Oslo agreement’, which came in time that they were “kings who mastered their destinies,” according to one of the testimonies. The movie also went back and forth between black-and-white and colored scenes.
 
The voice over greatly contributed to adding the satirical comedy feature. It also preserved the comedic feature of the story,which started off with kind or irony against the occupation.   
 
Shomali was able to employ his profession at the film, given that he holds a masters degree in animation. He had a comic book, stories and cartoon books for children. His first short movie was ‘Dying of the light’ in 2008, before his first feature-length “The Wanted 18.”
 
The Canadian Cowan is one of the most important documentaries directors. He was awarded several international prizes. The most important one was for his film Flamenco in 1983.
 
Shomali said that his film needed five years of work and that it faced many hardships like difficulty to access archives, as the Israeli occupation government refused to check it. Moreover, there was financial problems due to the high costs, which reached around US$1,200,000. Shomali said the project was blackmailed by the Le Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée (CNC) which accepted financing the movie, then stepped back saying that the director should be French.
 
Regarding his first experience, Shomali said that it was a lot of trouble making such a hard and technically-complicated film by a person who does not have previous experience in filmmaking.
 
 
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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