All That’s Left of You (Allly baqi mink) is written and directed by Cherien Dabis, who also stars as Hanan. Soon after the film opens. Hanan explains, in English, the multi-generational background of how her son, Noor (Muhammad Abed Elrahman), became involved, in 1988, in an anti-Israeli demonstration in the West Bank during which Israeli soldiers opened fire on the protestors. It is not until late in the story that we learn to whom she is telling this tale.
In 1948, the family of Noor’s grandfather, Sharif (Adam Bakri), along with hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, fled or were expelled during the creation of the state of Israel. Sharif tries to stay behind to protect the family’s orange orchard, but is kidnapped by the Israelis. When he finally finds his family, he is physically and emotionally damaged. His son, Salim, is traumatized by his father’s change.
Thirty years later, Salim (Saleh Bakri) is living in a refugee camp in the West Bank with his wife, Hanan, and their children, including son Noor. Trying to hurry home before a changed curfew, Salim and Noor are stopped by Israeli soldiers, who humiliate Salim. Noor becomes bitter about his father’s refusal to stand up to the soldiers. Eventually, Salim tries to explain to Noor that he did so because he was afraid the soldiers would physically attack both of them.
Flash forward another ten years, Noor, now an angry teenager, takes part in an anti-Israeli protest and is shot.
For the record. Saleh Bakri co-starred in the film Wajib.
Cherien Dabis was born in Omaha, Nebraska, and grew up in Celina, Ohio. Her father, a physician, was a refugee from the West Bank. Dabis has said that she was eight years old when she first visited Palestine. “We were held by Israeli authorities for twelve hours at the border and my baby sisters and I were strip-searched.”
A major lesson conveyed in All That’s Left of You is that when soldiers and other government officials, in this case Israelis, humiliate people and treat them violently, the resentment can continue for multiple generations. Apparently, many Israelis and other Jews have not learned this lesson. They seem unaware that by carpet bombing Gaza and killing tens of thousands of non-Hamas Gazans, they are making it worse for Israeli Jews for generations to come.
Spoiler Alert: In the latter part of All That’s Left of You, Noor and his parents travel to Israel because that is the only place where a hospital can deal with Noor’s critical condition. It turns out that Noor is brain dead. He will never regain consciousness. Hanan and Salim face the decision of whether or not they should donate his organs, which will inevitably end up in the bodies not of Palestinians, but of Jews.
