The Roof

This deceptively quiet film presents a portrait of Aljafaris family in Ramleh and Jaffa that hovers between documentary and cinematic memoir guided by a nimble camera moving calmly but ceaselessly around the rooms of homes inhabited damaged and ruined The title refers to the roof missing from the house where Aljafaris family resettled in 1948 a home unfinished an incomplete construction project The use of stillness and offscreen space creates a sense of suspension of time spent waiting of aftermath of lives lived elsewhere Aljafaris striking use of his cast his family reveals the influence of Bressons use of nonprofessional actors as models whose performances emanate from their presence not from acting