Tomorrow’s Freedom (12A)
Directed by Sophia Scott and Georgia Scott
★★★★

 
“MARWAN BARGHOUTI is somebody who has the potential for leadership, but the Israelis put him in jail and threw away the key, didn’t they,” says Lindsey Hilsum (international editor Channel 4 News), the only Western journalist to have interviewed in prison the man described as the Palestinian Nelson Mandela and who is widely believed to be capable of unifying the Palestinian people.

He has spent more than two decades in an Israeli prison, three in solitary confinement (being beaten and tortured), convicted of murder and declared a terrorist.

This powerful documentary by sisters Sophia Scott and Georgia Scott tells his story through the eyes of his family who are fighting for his freedom.

Over three years from 2017 the sisters were given unprecedented intimate access to his wife Fadwa, a lawyer and activist, and their four children. They witnessed first-hand the daily pressures the family were forced to endure. These included obtaining prison visits plus the 43-day-long hunger strike that he led calling for better conditions for Palestinian prisoners during which Fadwa was kept in the dark over her husband’s health condition.

The film features in-depth interviews with his family, his lawyers, human rights activists, Hilsum, Israeli journalists and Israeli political leaders, including the former justice minister of Israel Yossi Beilin. They are interwoven with archive footage spanning 30 years showing Barghouti’s transformation from activist to inspiring politician and possible future leader.

What is surprising in this compelling film are the Israelis who want Barghouti released too, including Beilin, who states he called for this from day one. “Someone like him who is a political leader should not be in jail.”

Also Fadwa proves a remarkable force keeping the family going while relentlessly campaigning for his release. Her energy and strength is extraordinary, particularly in battling the Israeli authorities who refuse to let her see Marwan following the hunger strike.

When they finally give in they keep her waiting for 12 hours at the jail to then deny her access. She is now banned from visiting him for three years, which beggars belief.

As the Israeli onslaught on Gaza continues, the film poses the question can peace between Israel and Palestine be reached with the right leaders? Is Marwan Barghouti, who supported the 1993 Oslo peace accords, that leader? Only his release will tell.
 
Out in cinemas today.