Characters at the Margins

In the narrative world wherein the major characters operate, minor characters usually receive minimal, ephemeral attention. This is a paradoxical yet inevitable transgression that film creators must commit. This paradox becomes starker in films that are produced from the political periphery and that tell stories of people pushed to the spatial, political or cultural margins. One example is Palestinian narratives where the filmmaker cinematises the marginalised narrative but, in the process, creates characters who live at the margins of the narrative itself and whose stories remain either partially explored or untold. This chapter examines the ways in which minor characters contribute to the larger schema of narrative building and character development in Jacir’s films. It explores and explicates the ways in which minor characters add to the multidimensionality of the main characters, the complexity of the plot, and the intricacies of a film’s narrative. It examines minor characters such as Noura, Fadya, Marwan and Irit to offer a scholarly exploration and critical examination of minor characters so as to explore the many ways in which these characters form and inform Jacir’s cinematic narratives and their efficacy.