Twin Directors Tarzan and Arab Nasser on Spaghetti Western ‘Once Upon a Time in Gaza': ‘With What Is Happening, the Title Is Even More Appropriate'
The film, which is premiering in Un Certain Regard, was conceived way before the current Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. It follows a young student named Yahya and a charismatic drug dealer named Osama who, while peddling drugs out of a falafel restaurant, are forced to grapple with a corrupt cop with a big ego.
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'Once Upon a Time in Gaza' marks their third feature after 'Dégradé,' which launched from the 2015 Cannes' Critics' Week, and 'Gaza Mon Amour,' which was Palestine's submission to the 2021 Academy Awards.
Below, the France-based Nasser brothers speak more to Variety about contending with the latest tragic developments in their country while making 'Once Upon a Time in Gaza.'
How did this film germinate?
We started writing the screenplay in 2015 and then we kept writing new drafts. The basic idea was to depict Gaza using the tone of a Western but, at the same time, tell a story that would give the audience a sense of real daily life of the people in Gaza through two or three characters.
Obviously Gaza today doesn't look today anything like what it looks like in the film. Are you concerned about that?
Any story being told today about Gaza it's once upon a time, because Gaza is practically no longer there. But when we chose the title, that was before the genocide that is happening now. At that time we always asked ourselves why we chose 'Once Upon a Time' for the title. Well, first of all, we thought that it's a global title: There is 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,' and 'in the West,' and 'in Anatolia.' So why not 'Once Upon a Time in Gaza'? But now, with what is happening, the title is even more appropriate. Now there is a people trying to survive in a situation where most of their land is just rubble.
The film is basically about two people who are dealing drugs by using falafels. And then there is a corrupt policeman. Is there a political subtext?
We always try to just make cinema. But in Gaza, in Palestine in general, it's very hard to escape from politics because politics control everything, they control the daily life of the people there. But at the start we were just trying to make a Western film, a piece of pure cinema. And that's why we choose these three characters, let's call them the good, the bad and the ugly.
Yes, but because of what is happening in Gaza right now, I don't think we can talk about this film and completely de-contextualize it. The word 'Gaza' these days conjures conflict. And you put Trump's 'Gaza Riviera' plan statement in the film, as well as occasional references to Israelis bombing with missiles. What was it like for you making this film at a time when the latest tragic developments were happening in Gaza?
I want to tell you something. We had been writing this film for a long time and when we got to a point were we thought it was finished that was on Oct. 6 [2023]. We were so proud, we decided to throw a small party with two close friends, one of whom had just came back from Gaza. And we spent a night with him just telling us how the people there were more miserable than usual. Then, after Oct. 7 we spent five months creatively petrified in front of the TV and on the phone with our family who lives in the north of Gaza. Then suddenly we decided: 'OK, we have to go on, we have to go back to the script.' And we decided that what the film is about is history repeating itself and a people that has no options, no horizons, no dreams. They never surrender. They continue. They continue their life. That this is the politics inside this film. We are talking about the people who is trying to survive.
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6 hours ago
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'We chose the side of Israel': Arad mayor bans artists who signed petition to end war
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Fox News
10 hours ago
- Fox News
Global intifada movement rocked by #MeToo allegations against Jewish anti-Israel actor and accused grifter
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"Several women have described feeling unsafe around him, especially in activist spaces." Neither Kiswani nor Berger responded to requests for comment, but Berger published a video response to Kiswani in which he denied her claims. He said "some heavy allegations have been leveled against me" and called the charges as a "personal vendetta" that arose after he did an interview with a podcast host critical of Kiswani. In a reverse Uno move straight out of a Muslim soap opera, Berger, he accused Kiswani of causing "baseless fitna." Fitna is an Arabic word that means civil war and carries with it serious negative subtext among ideologues bound to a collective identity of one "ummah," or Muslim community. The allegations are particularly awkward because, since the brutal Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of Israel by Hamas, Berger has become a virtual rock star in the anti-Israel scene, publishing selfies with activist luminaries, including socialist politician Cornel West, political scientist Norman Finkelstein, previously-detained protest leader Mamoud Khalil, Hollywood actor Rami Malek and rapper Macklemore. In June, former Democratic New York U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman interrupted his own reelection rally, railing against Israel and Republicans, to give Berger a shoutout and handslap. "Jacob Berger's the man…He's a brilliant artist, brilliant human! Jacob, thank you for being here. Appreciate you," Bowman said as Berger beamed for the camera. Last month, popular Egyptian comedian Bassem Youssef, now living in the U.S., recorded a video, "Hey, Jacob BURGER! … I'm a big fan. I love you, man." Days later, in an Instagram Live video, Michigan Democratic Rep. 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While it welcomed Berger, he had previously been known for creating a library of social media content that critics say "fetishizes" not only Arab women but also cleavage-popping Hispanic, Black and Asian women. In late February 2022, Berger had a very different business model. A former mental health and substance abuse counselor with a master's degree in social work from Columbia University, according to an official bio, Berger had switched careers to become an actor. That month, he launched a new business on the OnlyFans platform for sexually-charged video content, promoting himself as "The Instagram Cop." He dressed in a New York Police Department uniform while performing sexual capers around town with buxom women, usually earning less than 100,000 views on TikTok. "You have a right to remain silent!" OnlyFans wrote, announcing Berger's new offering. "Prepare for a barrel of laughs…" After Oct. 7, 2023, the Columbia University graduate made a sudden pivot. A week later, he posted an earnest video on Instagram, speaking to the camera in a NASA t-shirt, decrying the "genocide of the Palestinian people," calling Israel an "apartheid state" and ending with a chant, "Free Palestine!" By the end of the month, wearing a white New York Yankees baseball cap without a keffiyeh, he joined a slow-moving protest in Washington, D.C., led by a group, Jewish Voice for Peace, aligned with Kiswani, heading from Union Station to the back of the U.S. Capitol. The crowd chanted "Ceasefire now," as protest paparazzi took their images to post later on social media accounts in the emerging global intifada movement. The next month, Berger posted a selfie video from another protest Kiswani led on the Williamsburg Bridge, between Brooklyn and Manhattan. Wearing a "Bronx Native" baseball cap, protesting Israel's military response to the attacks, he chanted along with demonstrators: "Free, free Palestine." "He centers himself in everything," Kiswani alleges. "Even when talking to Palestinians and on livestreams, it's 'me me me,' how he suffers, how he is censored, how he gave up fame, while [he is] literally grifting off of a genocide." All along, Berger has been blatant about his sexual content, posting videos with scantily-clad women from his first days of anti-Israel protesting. As he joined the post-Oct. 7 protests and befriended Kiswani, he still had fresh on his social media feed a video he'd posted of a woman in a bra and thong underwear, with the caption, "When she likes it rough." In another video he had on his public feed, he squeezed a Black woman's buttocks, visible under lace hose and thong underwear, with the caption, "When cops stop you for being thick." After joining the protests, he stayed on script with his sexual content, showing two busty women spilling out of their bras, cavorting with each other behind the caption: "When wifey won't share her girlfriend with you." He earned 52,666 likes. By late November 2023, Berger wrapped a black-and-white checkered keffiyeh, the symbol of the global intifada, over his shoulders, under a Pittsburgh Pirates beanie and marched near Kiswani and a banner that read, "BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY." That post garnered 2.6 million views. "Ten toes down for 🍉," he wrote, using the watermelon emoji that's become a symbol for Palestine, its red, black and green colors matching the colors of the Palestinian flag. Days later, in a show of force against support for Israel, he marched to the Christmas tree lights at Rockefeller Center in midtown Manhattan with Kiswani, who gave her activist group the name "Within Our Lifetime," seeking to claim Israel as the nation of "Palestine" within a generation. She established the group as an offshoot of the New York City chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, known for its virulent anti-semitism. Over the years, Kiswani has chanted, "We want to see Israel fall within our lifetime," telling protestors: "We need allies who are gonna help us achieve a victory, not allies who are gonna tell us to be nonviolent." She has said, "No Zionists are welcome in our city," and she has declared, "We don't want two states. We want '48," meaning the land in 1948 before Israel was created. Her organization's website now hosts a "rally toolkit," with a "roadmap for how your organization or coalition can put on a successful rally and build the movement for Palestine from wherever you are." It offers a "rally checklist," with "chants, logistics, outreach, materials, assigned roles, security recommendations, follow up, playlist," with three "Palestinian resistance songs." The "donate" button currently doesn't work. Kiswani didn't publicly challenge Berber over the next two-and-a-half years, as he embedded himself deeper in the anti-Israel protest movement with often-cringey content about chasing "Habibti," or Arab women, and declaring, "Asian Women Are Thick Now♥️," "It's a handful of videos out of hundreds," Berger says, in his video response to the allegations against him. "I'm an entertainer, comedian and a streamer. I say funny things. Her trying to haram police my content and my live stream style is just insane and out of line." Kiswani now faces her own backlash. A self-described "Arab alphamale" supporter of Berger says, "Nerdeen is good at being a dictator," "acting retarded," running a "useless organization," storming Grand Central Station "like idiots" and making Palestinians "look stupid." By August 2024, Berger journeyed to Egypt to raise funds for "orphans and single moms from Gaza," displaced by the war. Kiswani alleges: "He reportedly made videos with Palestinian children on a 'field trip,' asking people to donate for these 'orphans' without consent from their families. When they found out and asked him to take it down, he blocked them." Berger denies the charges and says: "But this is, unfortunately, a very ugly side of the humanitarian world that we, as people that work in this field, try to keep to ourselves, because it's so messed up that if you know these kind of details, it could affect people's trust in donating to Palestinian causes, period." "Jacob Berger's the man…He's a brilliant artist, brilliant human! Jacob, thank you for being here. Appreciate you." - Former Democratic New York U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman introducing Berger at a rally Meanwhile, he kept posting his racy videos. In September 2024, in Dearborn, Mich., at ArabCon, he filmed a skit promoting a dating app, Olive, throwing a keffiyeh over his shoulders as he chased attractive Arab women, with the caption, "How to find that perfect Habibti😍," and asked the question, "Y'all wanna go free Palestine together?" By October 2024, Berger moved to live in Cairo. Kiswani accuses him of "getting a free apartment, not paying for anything, and living comfortably while volunteers around him were actually working." He denies the charges as "so laughable." The next month, Berger shared a supposed message from a follower: "As beautiful Muslim women, I feel we should give anti-zionist Jewish guys a shot. I feel like it isn't Haram," or Islamically illegal, "if he rides with Muslims" By the end of the year, Berger posted a skit of himself hitting on a dark-haired woman in torn jeans, her midriff bare under a jean jacket, tube top and caption that read, "How to get a womans [sic] attention in an Egyptian club." Months later, in the spring of 2025, Kiswani flashed a wide smile and "V" for victory with her fingers, in a video with Berger from an anti-Israel protest, both draped in kefiyyehs. Now, Kiswani says, "If you've felt uneasy about him, you're not alone…This isn't cancel culture. It's protecting the movement from exploiters. If your solidarity is self-promotion, it's actually extraction." A few months ago, in early May, wearing a Yankees cap, Berger stood somber-faced next to climate activist Greta Thunberg, promoting a "Freedom Flotilla" to "break this siege" in Gaza. In mid-June, he celebrated Iranian air strikes against Israel. By mid-July, now aboard a new sailing of the "Freedom Flotilla," he debated TV host Piers Morgan over the alleged "kidnapping" of Thurnberg by Israeli officials, who had detained and released her as she sailed off the shores of Israel. Last week, as he returned from his own aborted mission of the "Freedom Flotilla," with "GAZA" across his military green t-shirt and a kefiyyeh over his shoulders, activists lined a lobby in the arrivals lounge at JFK. International Airport, yelling, "Jacob! Jacob!" as he exchanged high-fives with them. "Protests in the street are not enough," he told a cameraman. "One day we will see Falasteen free, Inshallah," invoking the Arabic term used by Muslims for "God willing." "Inshallah," the cameraman responded. Within days, Kiswani leveled her accusations against Berger as a grifter and sexual predator, and a detractor accused him of helping the cause of Zionism, or belief in the state of Israel, labeling him "a Zio in Kefiyeah [sic]."
UPI
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Watch: Michael Douglas reflects on family drama in 'Looking Through Water'
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