In late August, Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad, whose chilling survival drama, The Mountain Between Us, starring Kate Winslet and Idris Elba brought him instant global acclaim seven years ago, did an act he usually reserves directing from behind a camera.

Assad picked up a pen to sign a statement criticising attempts in the Western entertainment media to deny Palestinians the right to “reclaim their narrative and share their history.” Joining fellow Palestinian filmmakers like Mai Masri, the first female cameraperson and director in Palestinian cinema, Elia Suleiman and Rashid Masharawi and celebrated actor Mohammad Bakri, Assad led a scathing attack on Hollywood for ‘dehumanising’ Palestinians and indulging in a "fiercely anti-Arab racist propaganda".

In the past it was a hidden war. Now it is an openly declared war against anything Palestinian,” says Assad, who quickly became the spokesperson for Palestinian cinema following the statement, which was signed by 65 Palestinian filmmakers and actors and came in the wake of an open letter by 150 pro-Israeli Hollywood personalities demanding withdrawal of the Emmy nomination of Palestinian activist Bisan Owda, who made the short film It is Bisan From Gaza and I Am Still Alive, for her alleged ties to a Palestinian terrorist organisation.

Speaking to The Hindustan Times on the sidelines of El Gouna Film Festival in Egypt, which concludes on November 1, the Palestinian-Dutch director who was a member of the jury at the Mumbai Film Festival five years ago, says the Palestinian people today are fighting a “heavy battle against fascism.”

'Supremacy is an illusion'

"This is fascism we are fighting against. If we win, freedom will win. And if we lose, fascism will win," says Assad, who divides his time between the Netherlands and the United States. "But I don't believe fascism will win because it is a self-destructive force. Supremacy is an illusion like Fata Morgana, you know, the mirage in the desert. It is a mirage to think you can defeat the will of people to be equal."

Assad admits it is painful to talk about the Israeli war in Gaza, which according to the Palestinian Health Ministry has killed 43,000 People, a large number of them women and children, and displaced nearly all of its 2.3 million population after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack in Israel killed 1,200 people and taken 250 hostage.

"A lot of people I know were killed in Gaza. It is very very painful, especially when I know there are still more than two million people who are starving," he says. "But we on the outside of Gaza believe the Palestinians there are phenomenal. It is a miracle how they could still stand where all the powerful countries in the world are against you, punishing you and killing you, destroying your house, your infrastructure, your food, your everything. And you are still standing."

“I believe all the people in Gaza are something of a miracle. I think they are beyond humans, they are superhumans.”

Born in Nazareth, Israel, Assad left for the Netherlands as a teenager to study aeronautical engineering. "I didn't last long as an engineer," he laughs, referring to his accidental meeting with famous Palestinian director Rashid Masharawi that tied him to cinema forever.

"I come from a family of businesspeople. My father was a businessman and mother a homemaker. There was nobody in our family in the movies. I was the first one," he says. "My parents are not alive today."

'I am a filmmaker by accident'

"I became a filmmaker by accident. After college I met Masharawi, the famous filmmaker from Gaza, and became his assistant. And I loved that. From that moment I became addicted to making movies," he says.

Assad went on to make such acclaimed films as Paradise Now about two Palestinian men recruited for a suicide attack in Tel Aviv -- screened at the Cinefan Asian Film Festival in Delhi in 2005 -- and Omar, the story of a Palestinian baker becoming a collaborator for Israeli security forces, which won a Special Jury Prize in Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film festival in 2013.

Paradise Now also won Assad his first Oscar nomination for the Best Foreign Language Film. The film won the Golden Globe in the Best Foreign Language Film category, but lost to the South African entry Tsotsi at the Academy Awards. Omar was nominated for the Oscars in 2014 that saw the Italian film, The Great Beauty, winning the Best Foreign Language Film award.

There is one movie that has impacted Assad in recent months and that is not made by him. "In the aftermath of the war in Gaza, I saw a movie called From Ground Zero made by young directors from Gaza who made short movies and put them together," he says. "It is being shown all over the world and you realise the power of creation," he adds. "The power of imagination is more powerful than tanks and F-35s."

"What these young Palestinian filmmakers are doing is, they are changing the reality to a story that you want to watch while the war is going on. The job of a filmmaker in Gaza is first trying to survive and second, telling stories."

'War has brought Palestinian filmmakers together'

Assad says the war has brought Palestinian filmmakers closer than ever. "We share our experiences where we can. We focus better on how we can all contribute better than what we are doing now. This war has brought us together."

Working with Kate Winslet and Idris Elba, who has announced his plans to move to Africa to contribute to his society, in The Mountain Between Us, was a very rich experience, recalls Assad. "I learned a lot from it. I think it is always worth a try to work with big budgets and super professionals. Although the level of creation is less and a more relaxing job than independent movies, it is also enjoyable to use your talent in a comfortable way. That gives you also, you know, sometimes opportunities to try things you can't try in independent movies."

“I don't talk about my next project. I am superstitious. But in general I am trying to find out how I can contribute to keeping our story, the story of Palestine, in the history books.”

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