Mahmoud Darwich— As the Land is the Language

I had close to no expectations from this documentary on Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish's, life. Most such chronicling efforts are patchy and markedly limited.

This documentary effort by Simone Bitton is however, refreshingly a sterling effort. It puts Darwish smack in the center of the narrative and weaves the storyline with his poetry, which it should. The film also employs some very well chosen scenes from the actual locations - Jenin, Galillee etc - as backdrops to the poetry.

But nothing can be as moving as Darwish reading his own poems, whose verses are such sublime admixtures of the modern, the current and the older, the historical...how beautifully he plumbed the depths of exile and land and belonging...