What Walaa Wants

Latifa Abu Draa is one of many Palestinians who has been imprisoned in Israeli jails for years. This was, naturally, a huge strain on the family, especially the 15-year-old daughter Walaa who lives with her siblings in the refugee camp Balata. Walaa grows up in an environment defined by uncertainty, suppression and anger, but dreams about becoming a police officer and joins the police academy directly after her mother is released from prison. The transition from life in the biggest refugee camp on the West Bank to the police academy’s though discipline isn’t easy for a teenager who has lived a life deprived of boundaries and authorities.

Christy Garland’s captivating documentary follows Walaa during the course of five years. The film depicts – like last year’s success on Arab Film Days – Amal – a young girl’s journey to becoming a woman. This is an unique character portrait from one of the world’s most complicated areas.

Christy Garland is based in Toronto but has been working a lot in the Nordic countries. Her first feature length documentary was Doormat (2008). In 2012 she made The Bastard Sings the Sweetest Song which premiered on Hot Docs and Sheffield DocFest. What Walaa Wants is her fourth documentary. It has been screened at several prestigious film festivals and won the special jury prize at HotDocs in 2018.