Palestinian Film Festival 2001 - Film Synopsis
Frontiers of Dreams and Fears
Children of Fire
Bethlehem 2000
Lamma Zaffouk
Attahadi: the Challange
Osturah: the Legend
Jaffa la Mienne
Behind the Wall
The Shadow
Little Hands
Near to Death
News Time
Title Deed from Moses
Child Testimony: Stop Bombing Bethlehem
Jamal, A story of Courage
The Dream
My Very Private Map
Nightfall
Dreams and Silence
Zaytounat
Fertile Memory
Chronicle of a Disappearance
Quintessence of Oblivion
Our Dreams...When?!
God Forbid!
Frontiers of Dreams and Fears
Directed by: Mai Masri
Length: 56 minutes
From Shatila Camp in Beirut to Dheisha Camp in Bethlehem, Frontiers of Dreams and Fears focuses on the journey of two Palestinian refugee girls to the frontiers that seperate them from their childhood and from each other. Filmed during the liberation of South Lebanon from the Israeli occupation and during the Palestinian Intifada, the film explores the relationship between memory, imagination and identity.
Children of Fire
Direction, Screenplay and Editing by: Mai Masri
Length: 50 minutes
- First Prize at Cairo Television Festival 1995
- Award of the Public at the Feminin Pluriel Festival
After 14 years of absence from her home town of Nablus, Mai Masri returns to find the city in flames and witnesses the new generation of Palestinian children struggling for their freedom from Zionist occupation and living the Intifada. We see young children becoming adults at a very early age because of the hardships of life in occupied Palestine, where their childhood has been taken away from them by the Zionist soldiers and where the only hope lies in the Intifada, the Revolution of the
Stones.
"Dramatic, bravely filmed... if you closed your eyes you could have been witnessing the Nazi occupation of the Warsaw Ghetto" Daily Express
Bethlehem 2000
The Bethlehem 2000 Project asked 5 Palestinian filmmakers to each produce a short film for December 31st 1999, on the last eve of the Millenium.
They are personal views of the problems of the occupation and its adverse effects on the Palestinian people.
Ali & his Friends: Sobhi Zudeibi portrays the children of the Jalazone refugee camp near Ramallah. They have a dream they strive to make come true. This short film is shot like a rap video clip and is a beautiful tale of willpower in a very difficuly social situation.
Out of Place: Azza al Hassan examines images and places that fill up her mind with ideas and contradictions: heaven & hell & earth, the past, present and future, history, geography and fantasy...
Makloubeh: Rashid Masharawi uses the theme of the makloubeh dish as a symbol of Palestinian identity in a funny short that depicts the simple rural life.
Children of Shatila: Mai Masri explores the world of the refugee children of the Shatila Camp in Beirut who can still dream despite their difficult lives, in a short version of her original film.
Cyber Palestine: Elia Suleiman takes the story of Joseph and Mary and brings it to the modern times and talks about the difficult situation of the Palestinian people nowadays.
Lamma Zaffouk
Direction by: Eyas Natour
Length: 25 minutes
" Lamma Zaffouk " is a letter sent from the mother to the world in a universal language: " Why did he leave with no return? "
It is a documentary film about death and the rituals of death that we see through song, a melody, a play, or a speech that is blended with tears that are still flowing from the eyes of the mothers, sisters and families of each and every one of the martyrs.
Attahadi: the Challange
Screenplay and Direction: Nizar Hassan
Duration: 20 minutes
The filmmaker is commissioned to do a film about the Intifada, basing his work on the killing of the young Muhammad al Durra. He ends up in a mad attempt to shoot a film in terrible conditions: total closure of roads, curfews and war. It soon becomes impossible for the film crew to move from one place to another, and Europe becomes closer to Ramallah than Gaza.
Osturah: the Legend
Direction, Script and Production: Nizar Hassan
Length: 93 minutes
"Osturah" meaning legend, fable, or myth, shows the problem of the Palestinians' forced exile through the personal story of one family whose members have been scattered to various countries, becoming a reflection of the catastrophe of a people which has been robbed of its homeland.
Three generations of the Khalil family lived in the same household until the summer of 1948 in Safouri, Palestine. As a result of the creation of the State of Israel, the family was split up, with the consequence that the three brothers were brought up separately: two in a refugee camp with their parents, and one in Palestine, who remained with his grandmother.
Their struggle to remain united as a family in the face of nearly insurmountable obstacles lies at the heart of the film, which exposes the world of people fighting one of the bitterest problems of identity given the loss of their homeland.
Jaffa la Mienne
Directed by: Robert Manthoulis, based on an idea by Maryse Gargour
Duration: 44 minutes
Jaffa la Mienne is a portrayal of the relationshop of the city of Jaffa with her exiled children, dispersed between Lebanon, France and England... The film takes us back to the old city of Jaffa, the main port of Palestine and the commercial and economic capital, to a time of prosperity and peace, contrasting sharply with the distress and exile that resulted by the Zionist occupation in 1948.
Behind the Wall
Directed by: Rashid Masharawi
Length: 30 minutes
Behind the Wall is a short documentary focusing on the Judaization of the city of Jerusalem: through appropriation of houses, expropriation of lands, building settlements, opening roads, imposition of high taxes and destruction of religious and historical monuments, etc...
Behind the Wall is about the city that bestows its soul for love, where prayers and hymns wrap the place, and history rises with the buildings and bends with the arches to protect the city form the invasion led by the Zionist settlers. The settlers want to steal everything: the houses, the small bedrooms, the names of the places, and the soul of the city.
Palestinians support the walls of their houses with their hearts and with pain and sorrow, support the great wall; yet, the shots of the Zionist occupation beat the sound of the persistent prayers at the last door of heaven. Behind the Wall is about Jerusalem
The Shadow
Directed by: Abdessalam Shehadeh
Duration: 43 minutes
This documentary film explores the social and political implications of the traditional beliefs in spirits (Jinn) and their power and influence on Palestinian society.
Little Hands
Directed by: Abdessalam Shehadeh
Duration: 26 minutes
The film explores the problem of child labour in Gaza through the personal stories of four children who recount the details of their lives and the difficult social, economic and political situation that obliges them to work at an early age, affecting their lives, families and futures.
Near to Death
Directed by: Abdessalam Shehadeh
Duration: 26 minutes
A documentary film dealing with the impact of nearby Zionist settlements on the lives of the Palestinian families. A shocking film, illustrating the community's continued suffering, post-Oslo, through the stories of three children - one killed, one kidnapped, one forced to walk every day through security areas in order to get to school.
News Time
Directed by: Azza al Hassan
Duration: 45 minutes
The director tries to shoot a film about the daily life in Palestine during the Intifada, and she faces great problems because of the difficult situation and the extreme tension. She ends up following the lives of four boys who spend most of the time practicing stone-throwing at the Zionist army. The film soon becomes the only means of entertainment in the neighbourhood.
Title Deed from Moses
Direction, Camera, Sound, Editing offline: Azza al Hassan
The film explores the issue of the brutality of Zionist settlement in Palestine and the expulsion of Palestinian farmers from their lands and homes. It focuses on the Ma'leh Adomim colony that is gradually eating up the land of the surrounding Arab villages in the West Bank.
"Occupation and oppression affects you as an individual in a very personal way. That is why, when I wanted to make a film about an Israeli Colony, I couldn't but start with anyone but myself. I shot the film with a small mini DV camera, which gave it a feel of a video diary. The choice to use DV was also motivated by the need to be faster than the expansion of the Ma'leh Adomim colony; in order to capture what was happening to the Arab villages before they disappeared." Azza al Hassa
Child Testimony: Stop Bombing Bethlehem
Directed by: Hayan Yacoub
Duration: 12 minutes
This short film depicts the inner psychology of the Palestinian children living under the occupation and war who talk about their feelings and emotions through their innocent drawings, that say a lot about the hardships they face every day.
Jamal, A story of Courage
Direction, Camera, Editing: Saed Andoni
Jamal, A story of courage, is a 21 minutes documentary film about a 19 years old Palestinian whose life has been totally shattered by a landmine which blew up in his hands at the age of 13, leaving his body in shambles, while he was playing in a park. Jamal has refused to allow this tragedy to defeat him. With an unbelievable courage, he has literally picked up and moved on.
Jamal is the not the only one who has suffered from land mines. Others have lost their children, relatives and beloved ones, and have nothing but tears to say what they felt and still feel.
The Dream
Direction and Screenplay: Mohammad Malas
Length: 45 minutes
The Dream is a documentary that explores the dreams of uprooted Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. It focuses on the psychological impact of exile, that results from the difficult socio-economic and political situation of these people who have forcibly left their homeland.
My Very Private Map
Directed by: Sobhi al Zubaidi
Length: 20 minutes
The film is a recollection of memories and scenes from the present in Palestine, telling the tale of the 1948 Arab-Zionist War that led to the occupation of Palestine and the forced migration of 750 000 refugees into the neighbouring countries.
Nightfall
Scenario, Camera, Direction, Production: Mohammad Soueid
Length: 70 minutes
The filmmaker returns to his diaries and recounts his time in "The Student Squad" of the Palestinian Resistance Movement "Fatah" during the Lebanese Civil War. We hear stories of old friends fallen during the war and of others still alive among their memories and solitude.
The filmmaker tells his story through drunken friends nursing their loneliness with poetry, cheer, and song.
Dreams and Silence
Directed by: Omar al Qattan
Duration: 52 minutes
Shot during the weeks preceeding the Gulf War, the film is a portrayal of a Palestinian woman refugee and her struggle with the religious and social constraints around her at a time of great tension and anguish.
Zaytounat
Directed and Screenplay: Liana Badr
Duration: 52 minutes
This short documentary talks about Palestinian women living under Zionist occupation. There is a special link between women and the olive trees. These trees that are with us from the time of our birth till the end of our lives... the film is based on the interview of 4 women from different backgrounds.
Fertile Memory
Direction, Screenplay & Production by: Michel Khleifi
Duration: 99 minutes
- Prix de la critique internationale & Prix de la premiere oeuvre, Carthage Film Festival 1981, Tunisia.
- Prix special du jury, Festival del cinema dei popoli 1981, Florence, Italy.
Fertile Memory is the first film to be made inside Palestine's Green Line. It is a blend of documentary and fiction recounting the lives of two very different Palestinian women: Farah Hatoum, a widow living with her children and grandchildren, and Sahar Khalifeh, a West Bank novelist. Michel Khleifi observes both women closely in their everyday life and brngs their contrasting personalities to the fore. Their different opinions and different lives play an important role in underlining their shared status as Palestinians under Zionist rule, and as women in a male-dominated society. Yet despite these contrasts, both mother and intellectual share the same struggle for freedom and dignity.
Chronicle of a Disappearance
Directed & Produced by: Elia Suleiman
Duration: 88 minutes
Chronicle of a Disappearance is a strange film that pushed us to question ourselves on what it means to belong to the land of Palestine. This is done through the personal view of the director, who comes back from the United States, and tells us of the impossibility of life under the occupation in a funny and creative way. The setting is Jerusalem and Nazareth. The tragedy becomes a black comedy that makes us laugh despite the misery of the situation.
Quintessence of Oblivion
Direction: Najwa Najjar
Duration: 45 minutes
This documentary film aimed at the start to explore the social life in Jerusalem from the 50s to the 80s through the Al Hambra Cinema Theatre, which opened its doors in 1952 until uts closure in 1989. Then the Intifada began in 2000 and the project changed completely.
Our Dreams...When?!
Direction & Editing: Hicham Kayed
Scenario by the young Filmmakers: Rabab Abdel Hadi, Zeinab Keizaran, Mohammad Azzouka, Muna Zaaroura, Walid Balqis
Duration: 16 minutes
The young writers of the scenario enter the film as a group of friends whose day dreams become a reality. Mohammed, the journalist, covers the young photo-journalists's exhibit in the camp, Rabab flies across all borders, Muna becomes a doctor, Walid finally sings on stage and Zeinab directs the film.
God Forbid!
Direction & Editing: Hicham Kayed
Scenario by the young Filmmakers: Ahmed Al-Shouli, Bachir Hussein, Jamal Mahmoud, Mohamed Halimeh
Duration: 25 minutes
The reality of life in the refugee camps blocks the dreams of children and becomes a nightmare for Halim. He is thinking of leaving school to support his family, while his friends spend the vacation acting as fortune-tellers.
