If “Chronicles From the Siege” is anything to go by, then at the very least, the camera has the ability to re-humanize a people constantly demeaned and murdered, by framing them outside the immediate confines of their suffering, and by giving them ordinary problems to work through, albeit under extraordinary pressures that distort their sense of routine. Even the wall clocks visible throughout the film — glimpsed over the shoulders of characters who express the psychological fissures of this siege, or stumble across poetry about the various Nakbas — all seem to have their clock hands stuck at about 7:30, no matter the time of day. This flattening of time also ensures that each section bleeds seamlessly into the next, as we meet a troubled and hungry former video-store owner, the endearing Arafat (Nadeem Rimawi), scavenging for food and medicine in a mostly silent scene that sets the stage for the film’s visual approach.
Author: Siddhant Adlakha
Published at: 2026-02-21 20:38:20
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