At one point in the documentary, House of Hope, the protagonist, Manar Wahhab, breaks down in a classroom corner in the school she founded with her husband in the occupied West Bank. The cameras keep rolling.
“To step into someone’s life with a camera at the moment when they’re really down, it feels a little bit uncomfortable, but we made the choice together to keep filming during these moments. I wanted the audience to be there with them,” director Marjolein Busstra told Al Jazeera.
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The film follows Wahhab, a Palestinian woman who established a Waldorf school with her husband, Milad Vosgueritchian, in al-Eizariya in the occupied West Bank.
House of Hope Vision Kindergarten & School teaches the Waldorf philosophy of non-violent resistance and offers children a space to express their emotions and cope with the trauma and difficulty of living under occupation.
“The school protects the children’s dignity in the present moment. It’s more about refusing to let occupation shape their inner world, so that they can actually be children and have agency,” Busstra said. “It’s in Waldorf philosophy that they make space to express the feelings.”
Working with a Palestinian crew, Busstra spent three years with Wahhab, travelling to the occupied West Bank nine times throughout the course of the documentary. She first met Wahhab ۱۸ years ago during a film workshop in the West Bank.
Although the documentary centres around the elementary school, Wahhab is the story’s driving force. The story follows Wahhab and Vosgueritchian, both at the school and at home with their children.
“I started filming the school, but right away, I knew I wanted to do it about Manar’s inner life,” Busstra said. “I think hope is a difficult word at the moment, but I have a deep awe for Manar, who keeps creating and teaching even while carrying so much herself.”
For Wahhab, her respect for Busstra and their existing friendship helped her trust the film crew during vulnerable moments.
“We both believe deeply in education, in children’s creativity and freedom and in seeing the human being as something whole and beautiful in mind, soul and spirit. Those shared values created openness and trust between us and helped shape a film that is not only about events but also about humanity,” Wahhab told Al Jazeera.
The film was produced by Think-Film, the company behind The Voice of Hind Rajab, which tells the story of the five-year-old Hind killed by Israeli forces in ۲۰۲۴. Soldiers fired ۳۳۵ bullets into the car carrying the girl and six of her family members – a story that became a symbol for the system failure to protect children in Gaza.
Although sometimes difficult, Wahhab said she made an effort to let the crew document multiple facets of her life.
“Over those three years, the crew met many versions of Manar. Sometimes they arrived, and I was fresh, energetic and cooperative. Other times, they found me exhausted, angry, overwhelmed, or ill,” she said. “I understood that I had to be as authentic as possible, because I was representing not only myself, but also my community, hope, peace and the voice of Palestinians.”
Wahhab and Vosgueritchian founded the school out of a desire to offer a different kind of education to Palestinian children and to provide a place where they felt safe and could share their emotions.
“The school was born many years ago when we saw the hardships surrounding our community and wanted to create something different, a space of love, safety, creativity and healing,” Wahhab said. “House of Hope is an idea, a mission and an energy that we carry wherever we go.”
In an increasingly violent Israeli occupation, Wahhab considers the Waldorf philosophy essential.
“I do not see nonviolence as weakness. Actually, I believe the opposite. Violence is easy. Nonviolence requires courage, awareness, patience and inner work. It asks us to see beyond our own pain and ego and to hold on to our humility even when circumstances are trying to pull us away from it,” she said.
“The world absorbs the energy that we create, and right now, there is so much fear, anger and violence in our world. I think we need more peace within ourselves, peace with one another and peace with nature,” Wahhab added.
After Hamas’s incursion into southern Israel on October ۷, ۲۰۲۳, came Israel’s brutal military response. Life became increasingly difficult for Wahhab, Vosgueritchian and the children at House of Hope, but the crew continued to document their realities.
“The story I wanted to create with Manar stayed the same, but after October ۷, everything became heavier. They were so down for a while. They were like different people, like they lost all hope,” Busstra said. “The school built this safe haven, but the occupation is always rattling at the door.”
Israel’s intensified military actions in the West Bank, including the shooting and killing of children, are a constant spectre. In another scene, Wahhab watches her son leave for school and checks to see if he has a phone charger and spare clothes in case he is held at a checkpoint for hours.
“The energy is so heavy now. I hope people understand that we are not asking for something extraordinary. We are asking for basic human rights, the right to live with dignity and freedom, the right to safety and the right to be fully human beings,” Manar said.
Busstra, who closely followed Wahhab for three years, said she wants audiences to go “beyond the framing of us vs them”.
“I hope that this stays with people, not as something distant that happens to others, but something they can locate within their own understanding of what it means to love someone in an unsafe world.”
Wahhab believes the film offers a more nuanced perspective of Palestinians.
“I think that in the West, many people see a very limited picture of Palestine and the Middle East. Sometimes they see us through stereotypes as terrorists, as people who are undeveloped or somehow less than themselves,” she said. “I hope this film helps people look beyond those images. The news does not tell the full reality. It often shows only violence and people killing one another. It doesn’t show the essence of people’s lives. It shows negativity,” she said.
Wahhab encouraged people to consider the documentary through a lens of shared humanity.
House of Hope won the best international feature documentary prize at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in May ۲۰۲۶ and was recently screened at UNESCO in Paris. It will soon be screened at the Jerusalem Arab Film Festival.
“Even though our story is deeply rooted in the West Bank, its message is universal. Our hope is that people everywhere can see our story and take something meaningful from it.”
