Last Days in Jerusalem (2011)

Set in the eastern Palestinian flank of the city of Jerusalem, the films traces a couple's emotional upheaval in the final moments before their voluntary uprooting. Iyad, a successful surgeon, and Nour, a rising stage actress, are both socially secure, hail from the upper middle class. In principle, neither has reason to want to leave. The night before their departure, Nour is offered the lead in a new play. The next morning, as they ride in a taxi to the airport, Iyad receives an emergency call from the hospital urging him to help tend to victims from a bus accident. He asks Nour to delay their departure a few days, and she accepts. Those last days represent days of tearing away from home, from all that the characters love. As the film examines the listlessness of everyday life in the shrinking urban space of Palestinian Jerusalem, the weight of being trapped becomes palpable. It gnaws at the couple's emotional stability and undermines them as individuals. Inertia draws them deeper down until they muster strength to attempt a departure again. This time it works; they shore up in Paris, seemingly free, but not unscathed.