THE TEACHER is the feature debut of Palestinian British filmmaker Farah Nabulsi who endeavours to take audiences on an intense, emotional journey into the lives and experiences of those living in occupied and colonised Palestine, and lift the curtain on the hardships and difficult choices they have to make. The film stars Saleh Bakri (“The Blue Kaftan,” “The Present,” “Wajib” and “The Band’s Visit”), Imogen Poots (“Outer Range,” “Green Room,” “28 Weeks Later” and “This Much I Know is True”) Muhammad Abed El Rahman, Stanley Townsend, Paul Herzberg, Mahmoud Bakri and Andrea Irvine.
The feature follows a Palestinian school teacher (Saleh Bakri) who struggles to reconcile his life-threatening commitment to political resistance with his emotional support for one of his students (Muhammad Abed El Rahman) and the chance of a new romantic relationship with a volunteer worker (Imogen Poots).
The film premiered at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival and has recently received the Best International Film Award at Galway Film Fleadh 2024. It won Audience Awards at the 67th San Francisco International Film Festival 2024, the 38th Washington DC International Film Festival 2024, and Kosmorama Trondheim International Film Festival 2024, among over a dozen additional awards.
Farah Nabulsi is an Academy Award®-nominated and BAFTA® award-winning Palestinian British filmmaker. In 2016 she started working in the film industry as a writer & producer of short fiction films. This includes “Today They Took My Son,” endorsed by British Director Ken Loach and screened at the United Nations.
“The Present,” her directorial debut, which she also co-wrote and produced, premiered at Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in 2020 and won the coveted Audience Award for Best Film. It went on to win over 60 International Film Festival Jury and Audience Awards, a BAFTA® award, and it scored an Oscar® nomination. “The Present” also won Cinema Without Borders’ Bridging the Borders Award at 2020 Palm Springs International ShortFest
Nabulsi has been invited to serve as a jury member at numerous festivals and as a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
The Teacher is Farah’s directorial fiction feature length film debut which premiered at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. It has won over 18 International Awards and was Longlisted for a BAFTA for Outstanding Debut.
