Amber Fares' first feature-length documentary follows the trials and tribulations of the Arab world's first female racing team, who shake up the streets and conservative traditions in a traditionally masculine sport.
Defying every stereotype are Mona Ali, 29, from Ramallah,Betty Saadeh, 35, from Bethlehem, Marah Zahalka, 23, Noor Dauod, 25, and Maysoon Jayyusi, the team’s 38-year-old manager, from Jerusalem. (Photo: Facebook)
(Photo: Facebook)
Mona Ali was the first woman to join the nascent Palestinian racing federation in 2005. “I was racing cars when I was a kid, learning how to do it, speeding with the boys from school,” Ali told The Guardian. “At first, the boys wouldn’t accept me; they didn’t want to race with me,” she says. “But I told them I’d carry on racing whether they liked it or not.” As the other women followed, they began making inroads on the Palestinian car-racing circut, i.e. market squares and airstrips re-jigged for racing.
The documentary is not only a story of acceptance from their families first, and then by male peers, but of their wider struggles of living under occupation. The girls have varying degrees of support from family members, and all struggle to meet the expensive needs of their sport against the backdrop of an already-strained economic and political environment of the West Bank.
Amber Fares' documentary is an inspiring showcase of perseverance and dedication in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles; it had its European premiere packed theaters in Sheffield Doc/Fest last week and has already garnered a buzz.
(Photo: Facebook)
Indiewire called it “A spirited, crowd-pleasing portrait” and The Hollywood Reporter said it was “an eye-opening doc that succeeds in its goal of shattering stereotypes.”
