Between Heaven and Earth
Tamer and Salma’s journey to get divorced is geopolitically complicated in Najwa Najjar’s 2019 film, Between Heaven and Earth. Salma is Palestinian but speaks Hebrew and has an Israeli ID so she must file for divorce in an Israeli court. Tamer is Palestinian and both his parents lived in Beirut - or so he thought. When Tamer and Salma arrive at the divorce court, they discover that Tamer’s father may have been married to an Israeli woman. This new information sends Tamer and Salma across Israel and Palestine to track down paperwork for Tamer’s father and prove Tamer’s legal status. Tamer’s status as a Palestinian who isn’t permitted to drive in Israel and doesn’t speak Hebrew puts him on a lesser footing as the couple drives from place to place. The road trip tests Tamer and Salma’s already frayed relationship but also reminds them of the things they have in common.
The plot of Between Heaven and Earth explores the main characters, Tamer and Salma’s, personal story but also ties in the stories of Christian Palestinians who were displaced in 1948 and Iraqi Jews who relocated to Israel but were not welcomed into society.
For more Najwa Najjar movies, check out her first film Pomegranates and Myrrh.
Vocabulary / مفردات
7:08
الطلق
Divorce
12:15
بدبر حالي
I’ll look after myself
14:50
الفتاحة
The fortune teller
16:21
عبري
Hebrew
20:48
دليل
Evidence
26:24
تصريح
Permit
28:38
صحة وهنا
Bone appetite
29:15
حفيد
Grandchild
29:56
حزب
Political party
Throughout the film, Salma and her father refer to الحزب, meaning the Communist party
30:54
يهودي
Jewish
37:34
تسوق
Driving
38:51
خوفكم
I scared you
39:30
المقاومة
The resistance
44:15
ضيافة
Hospitality
45:24
خطي حالك محلي
Put yourself in my shoes
45:28
جبان
Coward
54:02
بتنازل شوي
You compromise a little
Literal translation: you come down a little
54:55
فش مواصلات
There’s no public transit
56:10
حفلة موسيقية
Music festival
1:03:08
اشاعات
Rumors
1:03:32
سرية
Secretive (fem. adj.)
1:05:27
مخابرات
Intelligence services (like the CIA)
1:26:04
شهادات
Testimonies
