Review on thorns and silk

This movie by Paulina Tervo grabs your attention from the very first minute. This short movie is about four different Palestinian women telling their stories. All four of them work in male-dominated jobs: wedding filmmaker, taxi driver, policewoman and mechanic. The camera concentrates on a day-in-the-life of a woman, whose work is unusual in her society. All images lead our audience closely into these four women’s career life, the challenges that the Palestinian women face and their unseen inside parts.

“If you’d ask to choose between thorns or silk, I’d choose thorns.”

This quote probably shows best how these women fight against the traditions.



Each section of the movie consisted of the woman telling her story with accompanying images. These images are often contrasting Showing the heavy boots of police officers, it turns straight afterwards the feminine face of the woman.



The constant ethical background music, as well as fluent montage approaches, offers our audience a big visual and audio feast. The un-traditional uniform for women, the faraway drumbeats take us, the audience into a Palestinian world which the media fail to mention.



I love the part wherethe cabbie Majda takes off her Jewish headscarf in the car and ties it into a Muslim scarf Hijjab. The background music adds the atmosphere to this scene, which says so much without any spoken words.



The unveiled women-only wedding images, which stimulate audience appetite, however, can not be shown on screen due to relational restrictions despite many times of negotiations. The director uses high-heeled shoes and fingers with colourful long nails instead to portrait women. However, it leaves more space for audience imagination about their mysterious beauty under the veils. A thought-provoking documentary is always better than hundreds of educational books. From the movie, you can read certain contents such as human rights, feminism and go into deep thoughts afterwards.



The documentary thorns and silk was financially supported a grant from a research organisation called “Pathways of women’s empowerment”. The properly funded opportunity provides thorns and silk team with better equipment and professional crew throughout. Originally the movie started with images of female police officers directing traffic on the streets and later developed into the current series of four films.



Palestine and Palestinian people are always shown with a negative image in mainstream media in Europe. Paulina Tervo, however, did not stick to this stereotype. She went into a real Palestine life. Weary faced Palestinian women follow many restrictions and norms within their own territory.



When asked her comment on her first funded documentary, Paulina says, “I love this work from a storytelling angle and its visual look.”



Still some aspects are unsatisfying. The first story of the female filmmaker seems relative superficial. Deeper conflicts in Palestine are left untouched. Probably due to the length of the documentary; afterall, Paulina is a European.



The documentary thorns and silk changes our audience presumptuous idea about Palestine. From the director’s view, Palestine is not a place full of conflicts but a place full of stories. “I am determined to keep going back to tell positive, empowering stories that show Palestinians as strong and intelligent people because they deserve it.”



After the successful premier show in London, Paulina’s film is to meet its international audience gradually. We expect more from this feminist film maker more creative ideas on her next film.