TORONTO: The Toronto International Film Festival recently hosted the premiere of the documentary thriller “The Devil’s Drivers,” which follows Hamouda, leader of a group of drivers smuggling Palestinian men looking for work into Israel.
“He’s working for everyone and taking everyone’s burden,” filmmaker Daniel Carsenty told Arab News. “I think that’s something that I or we as filmmakers can identify a lot because in a way, he’s a tragic figure. But he’s also a hopeful, strong character and this makes us just fall in love with him.”
The film took eight years to make, with the first year just spent building trust and eventually being accepted by the secretive group.
“They come to us with crazy stories,” fellow documentarian Mohammed Abugeth shared. “That the wheel of the car was damaged and six or seven workers took up the car and changed the wheel and then a pursuit with the police and we understand why he didn’t answer us for three days.”
Filming was unpredictable, with the drivers on the run from the Israeli authorities. Many went to prison, including Hamouda, who missed the birth of his son.
“They caught seven out of nine,” said Carsenty. “We were in car number two. Car three to car nine all disappeared on that day.”
“For one or two years,” Abugeth added. “We’re looking, ‘how can we film this stuff?’”
Carsenty continued, “we returned two years later, one year later and the people were like ‘Oh, we just returned too.’”
The filmmakers hope that the documentary will be seen by Israeli audiences and make a difference in the region.
“Hamouda always asked me ‘what will change for me with this film, for us?’ And I always didn’t know what to answer him. How can I change the situation, the region’s situation?” Abugeth said.
“Let’s see if this film changes something or not but for me I did my best to show the reality.”