Exasperating Rides and Bittersweet Duties


 This article offers a contextual analysis of Annemarie Jacir’s film Wajib. I argue that Jacir employs the tropes of ‘the exasperating ride’ and ‘bittersweet duty’ as a means of demonstrating the material conditions endured by Palestinians in Nazareth, documenting mundane acts of sumuud in the face of personal and collective traumas, and articulating the complex sociopolitical landscape inhabited by Palestinians. Employing the interrelated tropes of the exasperating ride and bittersweet duty, Jacir ‘humors the Palestinian homeland’, thereby eschewing clichéd representations of Palestinians. The usage of the term ‘humor’ refers to a sense of eliciting frivolousness, as well as a sense of accommodating difference. Palestinian protagonists in Wajib often utilize humor as a survival mechanism; they also humor other Palestinians, whose worldviews, relationship to the land and modalities of steadfastness may differ from their own. The film emphasizes the polyphonous voices circumventing an exclusive master-narrative about the Palestinian homeland.