Ambience (2018)

Origin: Palestine | Fiction | Director: Wisam al-Jafari | 15 minutes

Two young people try to record music inside the camp for a competition. If they succeed, they have the chance to make a music album. Because of the chaos and problems in the camp, things go wrong at first. Finally, the two come up with the idea of recording the sounds of the camp instead - and turning them into music…

The main idea behind Ambience

Despite the fact that Wisam al-Jafari has the appropriate education to become a director (he obtained his BFA (Bachelor of Fine Arts) in filmmaking at Dar al-Kalima University), firstly he wanted to work as an assistant director, location manager, camera assistant and sound engineer, in order to understand the whole process of shooting the film from the inside. What is more, thanks to these jobs the director was able to save money for his life and for the production of his small projects without any external funding.

Wisam’s latest film Ambience, which is his second short fiction film and which he wrote and directed, was highly estimated at Cannes Film Festival 2019 and received approval all over the world. The idea behind the film is to show a usual day in the camp the director lives in. The film presents the camp as an intimate place capable of creating miracles in spite of many difficult circumstances. In addition to this, Ambience is a simple attempt to show the privacy lost in camps as the most basic human right. Wisam comments: “The viewer goes on a journey through the alleys of the camp where he discovers the details of the locals' lives. This settlement also introduces to us the world of young people, engaged in recording music, who seek opportunities for creativity and development under harsh conditions like lack of space, quietness, etc.” Ambience is a motivational film, especially for youngsters, as it proves that there are no obstacles if the person wants to find creative solutions or create artistic situations. Moreover, this film is a celebration of the camp and a victory of the culture of the poor, because they do not make up any excuses to justify their failures, they just act and, in the long run, achieve the desired result. For the foreign audience the film presents an absolutely different model of the young Palestinians compared to what the foreign viewer can see through various media. They do not succumb to the despair or depression and are able to embrace the difficulties and transform them to serve their projects.


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