'Bye Bye Tiberias' Review: Takes a Micro lens to a Macro Assault
In Bye Bye Tiberias, director Lina Soualem traces the lineage of her Palestinian female family members. Anchored around her mother, Succession star Hiam Abbass, Soualem puts together a patchwork of archival footage, home videos, and contemporary interviews, touching on the loss of loved ones and of one’s home. Made slightly before Israel’s ongoing military siege on Gaza that began in October 2023, Bye Bye Tiberias takes a microlens to a macro assault, reflecting on the legacy of the Zionist invasion of Palestine in 1948 while projecting forward to an assault which, at the time of production, hadn’t happened yet.
In her early twenties, Hiam Abbass left her Palestinian hometown of Tiberias to become an actor. As she travelled to Europe to achieve her dreams, her mother, grandmother, and seven sisters were left behind in a once-familiar Palestinian village, now rebuilt as an Israeli tourism hub. Thirty years on, Hiam’s daughter, Lina, returns with her mother to work through Hiam’s choice to leave. Consequently, the two reunite with some family members, relive the pain of losing others, and attempt to build up an archive of their family and Tiberias amidst the constant threat of erasure via ethnic cleansing and the destruction of historical Palestinian landmarks.
This is shown in an action that Soualem gets her mother, and later her extended family, to do. Gathering photos of family members, both current and generations past, as well as pictures of Tiberias before Zionists tore down the old city, Soualem instructs her family to stick them on a wall. The family collectively build an archive of memories, quickly spreading across the surface. From one centralised photograph of her mother and grandmother, a vast map of one family is spread out in a touching act of restoration. Of course, these photos aren’t framed or conserved in pristine conditions; confined to one wall which could join the many others that have been torn down in Tiberias, Soualem makes it clear that this archive, while rich, is quickly disappearing. By putting it on film, Soualem isn’t asking the viewer to remember each and every detail of every photograph, but instead to realise the tragic extent of erasure taking place in Tiberias and throughout Palestine.
What shines through the most are the personalities of the women in Soualem’s life. With the gossipy aunties, her grandmother’s full heart, and the insatiable adventurous spirit that exudes from her mother, it is no wonder that Soualem was desperate to share these women with the world. Bye Bye Tiberias is a heavy watch, but it is easy to forget this during the many heartwarming home videos showing the family together. Conversations about boyfriends, being scolded by their father, and memories of the village they once knew are told affectionately with laughter. One scene sees Hiam with her sisters, sitting in a line. Awkward when the camera starts rolling but they quickly begin to chatter over one another, sharing stories with each other, Soualem, and the camera. They want to share their legacy, just like Soualem does.
Hiam’s guilt of leaving home is sidelined slightly by the viewer’s foresight of the current conflict in Palestine. She grapples with the guilt, especially in an affecting moment when she returns to her recently deceased mother’s apartment, having rejected an opportunity to visit because of an acting gig. However, nothing is as affecting as the aircraft regularly interrupting the contemporary footage Soualem captures in Tiberias. Hiam looks up with a face of concern for what those aircraft could spell for the future. The viewer knows that her concern is rightfully placed.
Bye Bye Tiberias is primarily about Soualem’s family; her compassion for the women who came before her is evident and even refracted back into the viewer. I challenge anyone not to fall in love with these people. But the shadow of today’s ongoing conflict hangs heavy over this film. Soualem’s project of compassion is now a cry for help, calling on viewers to recognise the human impact of the erasure and loss being inflicted upon Palestine. As of writing, nearly 40,000 Palestinians have been killed and according to Oxfam International, Israel’s military is killing 250 Palestinians a day, exceeding the death toll of any other major conflict in recent years. At the end of the film, Soualem shows her extended family in a line with their arms around each other. They all smile, it is an image oozing with love. But with the atrocities being committed against the people of Palestine, it is impossible not to wonder where these people are today.
Bye Bye Tiberias had its UK release on the 28th of June 2024.
Edited by Humaira Valera, Co-Film & TV Editor
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