Darwish was born in the Western Galilee in the village al-Birwa; his family fled during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and returned a few years later to a ruined homeland.

Darwish left Israel in the 1970s, moving to Beirut just before the outbreak of the civil war, where he connected with the PLO leadership and became speech writer and confidant to Yasir Arafat.

Through his poetry, secret love letters, and exclusive archival materials, Mara'ana unearths the story behind the man who became the mouthpiece of the Palestinian people.

"[1] She notes, however, that the film has difficulty choosing between the nationalistic narrative of the activist poet, and the impossible love story between star-crossed lovers.

In this case, says Avivi, she was not only attacked by the right wing for aggrandizing a political figure antithetical to their existence, in their view, but she was also sharply criticized on the left, for "sullying" an icon.

[3] In Point of View, Pat Mullen had nothing but praise for the film, saying that "Write offers an appropriately poetic portrait of this influential voice.