Hanna K.
| Hanna K. | |
|---|---|
.jpg) | |
| Directed by | Costa-Gavras |
| Produced by |
Bob Cortez Edward Lewis |
| Written by |
Costa-Gavras Franco Solinas |
| Starring |
Jill Clayburgh Jean Yanne Gabriel Byrne Mohammad Bakri Zinedine Soualem |
| Music by | Gabriel Yared |
| Cinematography | Ricardo Aronovich |
| Edited by | Françoise Bonnot |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 111 minutes |
| Country |
Israel France |
| Language | English |
Hannah K. is a 1983 drama film directed by Costa-Gavras, starring Jill Clayburgh and Gabriel Byrne.
Plot
Hanna K. is the story of Hanna Kaufman, a child of Holocaust survivors and an American-Jewish immigrant to Israel, who is a court-appointed lawyer assigned to defend a Palestinian, Salim Bakri, accused of terrorism and infiltration. Salim claims that he was trying to regain possession of his family house. Hanna saves him from a jail sentence, but he is deported to Jordan. Salim eventually returns, is jailed for illegal immigration, and he again asks for her services. Hanna investigates the story and discovered that Salim’s family home is now a tourist attraction in Kafr Rimon, a settlement built and lived in by Russian Jews. Bakri’s former village of Kufr Rumaneh has disappeared except for a few stones and trees.
The state’s attorneys offer Hanna a deal: if she drops the proceedings, they will arrange for Salim to become a South African citizen, and he can then return to Israel and try to get his property back. Hanna is confronted with the fact that one legacy of the Holocaust was the dispossession of the Palestinians while her colleagues attempt to persuade her of the merits of the arrangement for Salim with the argument that Israel must be “defended” even if Palestinians are denied their rights.[1]
The film contained a number of aesthetic problems and Hanna’s personal life at times overshadowed and muddled the political aspects of the story. Nevertheless, Edward Said, Parr Professor of English Literature at Columbia University, commented: “As a political as well as cinematic intervention, then Hanna K. is a statement of a great and I believe, lasting significance.”
The controversy
Cheryl A. Rubenberg states in 1986, “The entertainment industry has traditionally contributed to the general American sympathy for Israel through popular films and television docudramas such as Exodus, The Chosen, Golda, and Entebbe, among others. No film was ever made reflecting the Palestinian perspective until Costa-Gavras’ Hannah K. in 1983.[2] Rubenberg notes that Costa-Gavras attempted to depict the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in human terms, and unlike previous Gavras' films, Hanna K. did not turn on emotions and attempted to present the complexity of a multifaceted situation without Gavras’ usual heavy hand.
Pro-Israeli groups were extremely concerned about Hanna K. and its potential for depicting the Palestinian issue in a sympathetic light. An internal memorandum was circulated by a B'nai B'rith and advising members that if the film played in their cities there were certain comments that could be made in the local press. Attached to the memorandum were two sets of prepared criticisms, written by Shimon Samuels and Abba Cohen from the French headquarters of the B'nai B'rith, outlining the arguments supporters of Israel should make against the film.[3]
Hanna K. opened in several American cities and played for a short time to virtually universal negative reviews, (where it was reviewed at all), then was abruptly pulled from circulation by the American distributor of the film. One Chicago distributor commented off-the-record that while it could not be proven that the film was pulled because of political pressure, distributors “understood” that the film was unacceptable to supporters of Israel, who have many friends and are themselves important in the entertainment industry. The director’s wife commented: “in the United States, a Universal tour that was to have encompassed New York, Boston, Washington, Chicago, and San Francisco was dropped at the last moment and a two-week run in New York substituted. Costa-Gavras gave scores of interviews to journalists and critics and began to notice a common thread. ‘They would come in and say that while they didn’t have political objections, a friend or relative had seen the film and thought it was anti-Israeli. After a while, we took side bets as to whether the writer in. We were about to see would have a cousin, Sr., neighbor etc., who’d spotted an anti-Israeli angle!’” Costa Gavras personally advertised the film in The New York Times at a cost of $50,000 after Universal refused to. Universal even forbade the director the use of advertisements that had been prepared for the film.[4]
Reception
The movie was reviewed by Vincent Canby for The New York Times.[5]
References
- ↑ Edward Said’s review of Hanna K., The Village Voice, Oct. 11, 1983, p. 45
- ↑ Cheryl A. Rubenberg. “Israel and the American National Interest, A Critical Examination”. University of Illinois Press, 1986. ISBN 0-252-01330-1. p 340
- ↑ Cheryl A. Rubenberg, p341
- ↑ Hanna Assadi’s interview with Michelle Ray-Gavras and lengthy article in Al Fajr, Feb. 8, 1984.
- ↑ Canby, Vincent (1983-09-30). "The Screen: 'Hanna K.,' with Jill Clayburgh". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 July 2012.
External links
- Hanna K. at the Internet Movie Database
- Hanna K. at AllMovie