Dir. Mike Dibb, 2004, UK, 110 mins
Cast:
Edward Said, Charles Glass
Until his death in 2003, the literary critic and Professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University Edward Said was widely regarded as the leading Palestinian intellectual and acted as indefatigable champion of the Palestinian cause. In his books (Orientalism, Culture and Imperialism and many others) he challenged the traditional Western perception of non-Western peoples and languages and explored the links between knowledge and power, the unavoidable relationship between the study by Western scholars of colonised peoples and the need to rule them- How an in-depth knowledge of a dominated people is the best weapon in the dominator's arsenal. In this context the study of foreign peoples becomes politically charged by definition.
Said was diagnosed with an incurable form of Leukemia in 1991. In 2002, as his health progressively deteriorated, journalist and former student DD Guttenplan suggested the filming of an extended interview which Mike Dibb agreed to direct.
The result is an impressive document dealing with all aspects of Said's life and work: His childhood and early influences, his academic life, his involvement in the Palestinian liberation struggle and the effect of his leukemia.
Interviewer Charles Glass starts by asking Said about his illness and in fact, in spite of the professor's unfaltering energy and lucidity, illness and death cast an ever-present shadow throughout the film. Said readily admits that his illness became an obsession, draining him of time and energy to the point that in the wake of September 11, 2001, he found himself incapable of facing the American media because he didn't have the physical and mental stamina he knew would be required.
Said speaks at length about the sense of dislocation triggered by his birth in Jerusalem into a Palestinian family headed by his father William, who had lived in America for decades and bequeathed his US citizenship to Said, their early move to Cairo, where he attended a British school, and his being sent to a private school in Massachussets at his father's behest. He describes his hugely varied cultural influences, his bilingual upbringing, his early discovery of English novels at a time when his access to TV and cinema were severely restricted, his lifelong love of music.
Intimately linked to his feeling of being a permanent outsider, Said describes his fascination with people different from himself, his attraction to the contradictory, the unreconciled and every aspect of human life that defies conventional explanations, an approach which, linked to his background, naturally made him into a controversial figure in the American academic and intellectual scene. In The Last Interview, Said criticises the provincialism of most American intellectuals and artists, who, in his view, have little interest in non-American points of view even when they deal with foreign topics or choose foreign settings for their works. The one-sidedness of American self-portrayal and the ideological character of education in the US , which makes criticism of American policy all but unthinkable, are also targets for Said's criticism. The Last Interview was filmed before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, but Said is equally riveting when he recalls the anti-Arab cliches that started to emerge in the US after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and points out the long-standing American narrative according to which Communism and Arab nationalism invaded and conquered, while America 'protected', 'liberated' and/or 'maintaned a presence' in foreign countries like Vietnam.
Said speaks with particular intensity when he turns to his role in the Palestinian liberation struggle and remembers how, throughout his illness, he succeeded in keeping up his work by conjuring up in his mind the image of Ariel Sharon's face. As a member of the Palestinian National Council from 1977 to 1991 Said found himself in the thick of things, trying to convince Yasser Arafat of the importance of involving the US in any potential peace agreement and having personal friends like Kamal Nasser assassinated by Israeli hit squads. Opposed to violent resistance, Said became progressively disenchanted with Yassir Arafat's leadership and became a bitter critic of the 1993 Oslo agreements, which gave the Palestinians no specific guarantees and placed their hopes in the hands of Israel and the US, and of Ehud Barak's 'generous offer' of December 2000 which for many pro-Israeli commentators 'demonstrates' Arafat's unwillingness to commit to peace. The relationship between Said and the Palestinian Authority became so strained that his books were banned in the West Bank and Gaza .
Said is pessimistic about the future of the 'peace process' in Palestine, which for him is a complete fantasy born of a political interest in conveying the idea that 'progress' is being made even as settlement expansion and Israeli landgrabbing of Palestinian land continued. He sees the Palestinian people as trapped between a corrupt leadership which has stifled dissent and failed to protect them and brutal Israeli policies designed to make Palestinian life impossible and carry on with the appropriation of land and resources. He points out the failure of Palestinian intellectuals to tackle the real issues at the heart of their people's predicament and hopes that the failure of the Palestinian Authority will encourage educated Palestinians to take responsibility for their own future. In spite of all difficulties, Said was convinced to the end of the need to look for ways for Palestinians and Israelis to understand each other and live together in peace, for, as he points out, 'You cannot ignore the presence in your midst of another people'.
Edward Said: The Last Interview is more than a tribute to an extraordinary intellectual figure. It's eloquent proof that, as much as Edward Said's determination to search for the truth and engage with the wider world rose above illness and physical decay ('I find it really difficult to turn myself off', he observed), the influence of his thinking and the power of his example will stay with us long after his death.
Miguel Sopena
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