Naram & Yael

What starts as a food and culture documentary made by a Palestinian and Israeli woman evolves into a decade-long political and personal struggle as the Palestinian desperately fights for her liberation and the Israeli's Zionist beliefs are dismantled.

Spanning twelve years and over 200 hours of footage, we have filmed a raw and intimate story of a friendship in all its beauty and pain. We are ready to start post production and we need your help to bring it to the world.

Naram, a Palestinian citizen of Israel becomes best friends with Israeli chef, Yael, while working as a waitress at her Auckland restaurant. In 2014, they haphazardly planned a trip to Israel/Palestine to film a food and culture documentary. Enlisting a former dishwasher, Callum Thomas (Co-Director and Cinematographer), to come along with his camera. This plan immediately unravels as it becomes clear that Yael has ignorant views towards Palestinians and wants to “normalise” Israel as sophisticated and benevolent. She only wants to show-off delicious food and the glitz and glam of Tel Aviv. To challenge Yael’s views, Naram convinces her to visit the Occupied West Bank for the first time. Naram is shocked at her friend's visible fear and anxiety toward its residents. In a return trip in 2016 the women commit to filming a more honest depiction of the political reality. They speak to more residents of the West Bank and hear firsthand a fraction of the innumerable plights of the Palestinian people, such as the cruel treatment of Palestinian farmers by the Israeli military. At the steps of a Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, Naram describes how Jewish history has been purposefully manipulated to present an unchanging notion of existential fear and helplessness that blinds Yael, and the Israeli people, to the Palestinian struggle. Yael accepts and acknowledges this to Naram’s relief.

In more recent years we see that the women’s lives have profoundly changed. Naram relocated to Finland, then Berlin in a bid for European citizenship and her freedom. Yael unlearned her Zionist upbringing and joined the Palestinian solidarity movement in Auckland. However, the devastating events of October 7th 2023 and Israel’s continued genocide in Gaza upends the women’s lives. The renewed violence causes the women to lose many important family and friend connections as well as the ability to speak critically of Israel without reprisal. 

They reunite for a summer road trip in New Zealand in late 2024 to comfort and support each other. But a tense car-ride conversation through the volcanic fields reveals Naram’s desire for acknowledgment of her family story, as well as new details of Yael’s father’s activities while serving in the IDF. These new feelings of grief and guilt are devastating to the women and they must face themselves again with radical honesty. They must decide if their journey, their change and all the love they have for each other is still enough to survive this new reality together. 

Together they seek a final journey of closure and self-reflection a few months later upon the hidden ruins of a Palestinian village, a place that was once Naram's home.

Avigail Allan

Co-Director & Writer

Avigail is a Jewish Israeli New Zealander and Yael Shochat’s daughter. She is a director and researcher specialising in factual filmmaking. She directed over 50 episodes of Kea Kids News, engaging young audiences with current affairs, researched for Guy Williams' New Zealand Today Season 4 and directed public health videos for the Ministry of Education on menstrual health and online campaigns for the New Zealand Nurses Organisation. She has co-founded a Jewish, pro-Palestine organisation called Dayenu: New Zealand Jews Against Occupation. 


Callum Thomas

Co-Director & Cinematographer

Callum specialises in observational documentary and TV, shooting with small or no crew, not just a fly on the wall but totally immersed. His credits include 8 years as camera operator and shoot director on Kiwi classics Motorway Patrol and Border Patrol, seen in over 40 countries. He has filmed on Navy patrols in the Southern Ocean, vaka ama competitions in Rarotonga, and backstage at Gore's Gold Guitar Awards. He previously spent a decade in post-production and VFX with credits at Weta Digital on The Hobbit trilogy, The Jungle Book and Fast & Furious. His work on Naram & Yael began in 2012 working as a waiter at Ima Cuisine. Yael asked if he had a camera - he said yes.


Angela Maurice

Producer

Angela is an experienced independent producer and production manager. She has produced promos for TV shows like Master Chef, The Apprentice and Shortland Street.  She co-produced short film, Hauraki, which was selected for the New York Tribeca Film Festival. She has also managed the art departments for Amazon's ‘The Wilds’ and HBO's ‘Our Flag Means Death’. In addition, Angela produced the documentary series Tribal: Inside NZ’s Underground Music Scene for Stuff. More recently, she coordinated the location departments for Netflix series ‘East of Eden’ and South Pacific Picture’s ‘Ms X’.


Bennett Conran

Producer

Bennett is an experienced Coordinator for Art and Props departments, working on big-budget international productions as well as local New Zealand projects. He was Art coordinator for Kaupapa Maori production 'This is Home', Props Coordinator for Apple TVs 'Chief of War', and Assistant props buyer on ‘Spartacus - House of Ashur’. This is his first official role as producer, he brings to this project his passion for deeply human stories as well as his eye for detail, artistic skills and logistical and budget know-how.

Over twelve years we have gathered almost 200 hours of footage, encompassing an emotionally raw and honest story of a friendship. All principal photography has been independently produced and financed. In 2023, we received development funding from the Ministry of Ethnic Communities. With this we combed through all the footage, transcribed and translated all the dialogue in English, Arabic and Hebrew and wrote an initial paper edit. We were also selected to receive mentoring and further development at The DocEdge Pitch 2024 (NZ) and the Dhaka DocLab 2024 (Bangladesh).

With your support we can now put it all together. The crowdfunding will pay for editing, post production, music - all the stuff we need to get this incredible project ready for distribution.

Naram & Yael is an urgent story for our politically tumultuous times. This film will be an 85 minute feature documentary made for festivals and streaming distribution, shot in an observational, intimate style that advocates for change. A decade long collaboration between the filmmakers and subjects that is as unique as the story on screen.

Inspired by both political and social issue documentaries and the road-trip genre. Naram & Yael is a rich tapestry of different characters, sprawling desert vistas, food, laughs, hard conversations, anger, tears and the harsh realities of a changing world. The film depicts women and workers in the region as political agents that intellectualise their own lived experience and speak for themselves.

This universal story of friendship and love will act as a vehicle to bring more attention to the Palestinian struggle for liberation, not an explainer of the history but an example for the future.

Central to the film is the transformative political potential of ordinary people, like nurses and chefs, instead of relying on dehumanising tropes of “war porn” and “expert interviews.” We want to challenge orientalist tropes of Palestinian women as subjugated, weeping victims and Jewish women as conservative mouthpieces for the Israeli state. The film also role models the potential we all have to change our worldview. While Yael undoes her Zionism and commits herself to Palestinian liberation, Naram also reclaims her Palestinian identity and both women go on a journey together to become more politically conscious. 

We want this story to empower communities affected by racism and state violence as well as inspiring our wider audience too. We want our audience to feel steadfast in the global fight for Palestinian liberation. We know that our film can change hearts and minds. Everyone has a friendship that changes them.