While some women choose to distance themselves from the habits and customs of her origins in order to find their own true identities and places in society, they still hold an unbreakable bond with the women in their family. That’s certainly the case for acclaimed actress Hiam Abbas, who made the difficult decision to leave the women in her family in the Palestinian village of Deir Hanna to pursue her dream of acting in France.
Abbas’ decision to fight against the patriarchal society she lived in with her family, and follow her professional dreams in the process, is highlighted in the new documentary, ‘Bye Bye Tiberias.’ The film explores her determination to exist freely and fully as she pursued her professional aspirations on her own. The movie also showcases how she continues to cherish the memories of the women in her family while she ponders how a woman finds her place when she’s caught between drastically different worlds.
‘Bye Bye Tiberias,’ which is presented in French and Arabic, was directed by Abbas’ daughter, filmmaker Lina Soualem. The latter also co-wrote the movie with Nadine Naous and Gladys Joujou, and served as a cinematographer with Frida Marzouk and Thomas Brémond.
The feature had its North American premiere during the Toronto International Film Festival’s TIFF Docs section on Monday, September 11. The movie then had its second and third TIFF screenings on Wednesday, September 13 and Saturday, September 16.
‘Bye Bye Tiberias’ chronicles how at the age of 23, Abbass (who’s known for her roles in such films as ‘Red Satin,’ ‘The Visitor’ and ‘Gaza mon amour,’ as well as hit television series Succession and ‘Ramy’) made the difficult decision to leave her grandmother, mother and seven sisters in the Palestinian village of Deir Hanna to pursue acting in France. Years later, with her daughter, Soualem, in tow, Abbass began annual returns to her rapidly changing childhood home during the summer. Each of their visits were captured on home video by Soualem’s father, French actor Zinedine Soualem.
Abbass would take Soualem to Lake Tiberias, which is also known as the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus is said to have walked on water. Abbass’s grandparents, Um Ali and Hosni Tabari, were expelled from Tiberias in 1948. From the water, Abbass would show Soualem the world she was also a part of: an Arab world divided by conflict and colonial interference that redetermined the landscape.
Braiding together old and new family records with pre-1948 archival material, including poetry and personal narrative, Soualem — in a trenchant and assured follow-up to her 2020 feature debut ‘Their Algeria’ — tells a meditative story about four generations of women working hard to mend the seams of multiple separations, forced and chosen.
Soualem and Abbass generously took the time the day after ‘Bye Bye Tiberias’s North American premiere during TIFF to talk about making the feature during a Zoom interview. The interview with the filmmakers can be viewed in the above video.
Film Factual 