‘The Teacher’: Toronto Review

Dir/scr: Farah Nabulsi. UK/Palestine/Qatar. 2023. 117mins

The trauma of the Israeli occupation of Palestine weighs heavily on the title character of The Teacher, Palestinian British writer-director Farah Nabulsi’s impassioned but dramatically wobbly feature debut. Saleh Bakri exudes palpable weariness as an English professor reluctantly drawn into both a hostage negotiation and a murder investigation, each of which triggers memories of an unhappy past that haunts him. The film simmers with rage at the cruelty of one nation toward another, although the plotting grows increasingly convoluted, undermining the story’s righteous anger.

A muddled narrative full of honourable intentions

The Teacher premieres in Toronto’s Discovery strand, courting buyers on the strength of the picture’s topical edge. Nabulsi’s 2020 short The Present, which also starred Bakri and similarly explored similar tensions in Israel, was nominated for an Oscar and won a Bafta. Bakri’s international acclaim will only further drive interest in this film, even if Nabulsi’s first feature finds her ambitions running ahead of her execution.

Basem (Bakri) is a compassionate teacher in Palestine, taking a special interest in brothers Yacoub (Mahmoud Bakri) and Adam (Muhammad Abed El Rahman), both of whom are sensitive young men chafing under the constant irritation of Israeli settlements. When the brothers’ house is selected for demolition by Israeli authorities, it leads to an outburst with fatal consequences — and, later, a probably-futile attempt to get justice through the courts. 

At the same time, an American soldier, Nathaniel, is being held prisoner by a Palestinian resistance force, prompting his father, a US diplomat named Simon (Stanley Townsend), to travel to Israel to secure his son’s release. The resistance group says it will free Nathaniel, but only in exchange for the release of 1,200 Palestinian prisoners. Basem will become ensnared in Nathaniel’s ordeal once Israeli troops begin to comb Palestinian territories in search of the soldier. As a result, Basem will become reacquainted with his past self — long before he was a humble teacher — in order to help broker a hostage negotiation.

Nabulsi brings together the personal and the political for her debut, which measures the pain of occupation through the perspective of Basem, a seemingly gentle middle-aged man who, for reasons that will become clear later in the film, walked away from the life of a fiery protester. He is called back into that world primarily because of the hostage situation, but matters are further complicated by a budding romance developing between him and Lisa (Imogen Poots), a British volunteer at his school who has no idea about what he did before. (As she will realise, there are several aspects of Basem’s life he hasn’t shared with her.)

The authenticity Bakri brings to Basem’s anguish proves more compelling than the story Nabulsi places him in. The Teacher juggles different tones and plot strands, not always deftly. The romantic storyline sits awkwardly alongside Basem’s deepening involvement in Nathaniel’s plight, and there’s also the timid schoolboy Adam who becomes radicalised against Israel. Shot in the West Bank, The Teacher exudes an air of constant discontent — of two peoples living uneasily in the same space — and the filmmaker’s anger at the Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinians flows through every frame. (There’s also criticism directed at US lawmakers’ permissive attitude about Israel’s behaviour.) 

Unfortunately, Nabulsi tends toward melodramatic flourishes and overheated plot twists that do not feel organic to the characters she has created. Too often, things happen because of the points Nabulsi wants to make, forcing Bakri and Poots to invest unrealistic scenarios with real feeling. Poots especially struggles to turn Lisa into more than just an adoring love interest who finds Basem soulful and admirable, later feeling betrayed when he admits to hiding his earlier life from her. Despite the two leads’ warm rapport, there is a naggingly facile quality to their courtship that snuffs out any hope of a romantic spark.

Nabulsi deserves credit for tackling a thorny issue with complexity, crafting a drama with several tendrils reaching out in all different directions, illustrating how the Israeli/Palestinian dispute impacts so many in the region. But that complexity mostly results in a muddled narrative full of honourable intentions but lacking in catharsis or insight.