Palestinian Film Festival 2003 - Film Synopsis
Coming Back
Bitter Water
3CM Less
Humus Al Eed
A Ticket To Jerusalem
Shahrazad
‘OBOR KALANDIA “CROSSING KALANDIA”
Al-Daou Akhir al-Nafaq
Jenin ...Jenin
Jenin
Jeningrad
Ejteyah “Invasion”
Sukkar Yafa
Local
LE PAYS DE BLANCHE “Blanche’s Homeland”
There Still Is Ka’ek On The Sidewalk
Yawmiat ‘Ahir “Diary of a Male Whore”
Debris
Shababik Falastiniyah
Haifawi
Tear of Peace
A Room Without a View
Shatter Hassan
HISTORICAL ABSENCE OF MIND
The Children of Ibdaa’: To Create Something Out of Nothing”
500 Dunam on the Moon
Story of a Suicide Bomber
JEREMY HARDY VS. THE ISRAELI ARMY
Gaza Strip
The Satellite Shooters
Coming Back
Some birds migrate, but all birds keep coming back seeking the warmth of a homeland. This is the story of one.
Palestine 2003
Produced and Directed by: Ahmad Habash
Production Company: M-team Production
Duration: 7 min.
No Dialogue
Bitter Water
People wanted to tell their stories. We settled into the rhythm of the camp and eventually gained people's confidence. Over a period of 5 weeks, we spent whole days with families in their homes and places of work. We sat around in shops and spoke to people who just turned up. We filmed in the streets and in the alleys and on rooftops. Within an instant, an ordinary conversation moved between humour and tragedy, sadness and anger, grief and joy.
The frustration of trying to hold on to an identity sometimes broke through the veneer of ‘normal life'. The connection with the past is fraying and there is no hope for the future. Older people are trapped in their memory of Palestine, which younger generations hope to see. They just want to escape – anywhere will do. The camp is permeated with a sense of loss, whether of a home in Palestine or of children and parents killed during the civil war in Lebanon.
UK 2003
Produced & Directed by Noura Sakkaf and Maysoon Pachachi
© Legend Productions / Oxymoron Films co-production
Duration: 76min.
Arabic with English Subtitles
3CM Less
“How dare you leave this family and walk away?.
This is what Reed says to her dead father who in 1972 hijacked a plane and died in the process.
Her anger toward him is not very different from the anger which Samia, Surida and Sarah feel toward their mothers who were always too busy fighting the Israelis to be present in their lives.
These are the main characters in “3cm Less”, women who wish to reconcile with their family members by capturing their attempts to do so on tape.
Palestine, 2003
Produced & Directed by Azza el-Hassan
Duration: 60 min.
Arabic with English Subtitles
Humus Al Eed
Layla is a Palestinian girl who lives in Paris. Her parents live in Palestine. She follows closely her parents' news through widely-transmitted daily T.V reports: pictures about war, starvation and disasters occurring worldwide but especially in her homeland. She writes a letter to her parents telling them that she has decided to stop listening to the T.V news and to prepare Humus (a popular Arabic dish that is well known in Palestine) to welcome the feast.
Through this experimental short film we follow the silent scenes that are broadcast on T.V and the steps of preparing Humus.
Palestine 2003
by Rashid Masharawi
Production: Cinema Production Center
Duration: 12 min.
No Dialogue
A Ticket To Jerusalem
Jaber tries to make ends meet for a good life with his wife in the Palestinian refugee camp near Ramallah, just north of Jerusalem. Jaber a kind gentleman in his early 40s, runs a mobile cinema, bringing entertainment to both children and adults throughout the disputed territory of the West Bank. Because of the declining situation of the conflict, his mission meets more and more obstacles. Too many checkpoints and difficulties in obtaining permits...
One day, Jaber is encouaged by Rabab, a school teacher, to organize a screening in the Old City of Jerusalem. His perseverance is put to a test when he invetsigates the complicated possibilities of staging his screening. His efforts get him involved in the problems of Rabab's elderly mother, a Jerusalem resident trying to protect her home from Israeli settlers.
Tension erupts in Jaber's relationship with his wife, Sanah, who questions her husband's motives for continuing to take risks in his repeated trips to Jersusalem. But Jaber is determined to make the Jerusalem screening happen...
Palestine 2002
Written & Directed by Rashid Masharawi
Production: ARTE France
Duration: 85 min.
Language: Arabic with English Subtitles
Shahrazad
It's the anxiety that goes beyond the veils of speech in the news bulletins, searching for the language that speaks of the missing part of the story…
Words here are colored images charged with emotions, and subtle patterns of behavior engulfed by silence, details in the path appearing on the surface.
Palestine 2003
by Rashid Masharawi
Produced by Sharjah Biennial
Production: Cinema Production Center
Duration: 12 min.
‘OBOR KALANDIA “CROSSING KALANDIA”
This film focuses on the way of living in Palestine during the al-Aqsa Intifada, the Israeli raids and the terrible consequences of September 11.
Kalandia is the “checkpoint” that the director and his wife must cross every time they go to Jerusalem, experiencing the humiliation and violence of segregation. In contrast with the horror of this daily bullying, the surrounding destruction and the ordinary suffering, Sobhi al-Zobaidi admirably conveys people's capacity to go on living. With various voices and testimonies the director composes one splendid song of hope.
Palestine 2002
By Sobhi al-Zobaidi
Production: reFugee camp productions – Sobhi al-Zobaidi
Duration: 50 min.
Arabic with English Subtitles
Al-Daou Akhir al-Nafaq
According to many sources, over half a million Palestinians have been arrested and imprisoned by Israel since 1967.
This film reflects on some of the problems that the Palestinian detainees face after their release from Israeli prison. Six ex-detainees, two women and four men, talk about their life after being released. Some were unable to bridge the gap between the families and themselves. Some feel that they came out from one prison only to enter another.
Palestine 2001
By Sobhi al-Zobaidi
Production: reFugee camp productions
Duration: 52 min.
Arabic with English Subtitles
Jenin ..Jenin
In the aftermath of the massacre committed by the Israeli army in the Palestinian camp of Jenin, the survivors describe the terror they witnessed. The humiliation of elderly people, the anger of young girls, the sign language of the deaf man and even the sarcasm of adult men tell the story of the continuous genocide of the Palestinian people.
Palestine 2002
Produced & Directed by Mohamad Bakri
Duration: 55 min.
Arabic with English Subtitles
Jenin
A documentary that attempts to re-capture the events before, during, and after the Israeli invasion of Jenin Camp on April 5, 2002 through special filming and the narrated stories of refugees.
UK 2002
By Iyad Daoud
Production: The Palestinian Return Centre
Duration: 41 min.
Arabic with English Subtitles
Jeningrad
To those who are still throbbing with resistant souls, uprooted from their homes and have lived in tinplate houses for the past fifty four years with the single hope of return....
To their homes, their fields and their orange grooves.. their villages, their homes and their cities that they were forced to leave...
The place is Jenin and the time is April 3rd, 2002. April, the most beautiful month of the Spring season was not as such in Jenin camp.
Teardrops in every home; in every street and underneath every stone, there is a story that tells the chapters of Palestinian uprootedness.
Palestine 2002
by Firas Abdel Rahman
Duration: 37
Arabic with English Subtitles
Ejteyah “Invasion”
This film takes place shortly after the Israeli Invasion of Jenin Camp in late March 2002. The people of Jenin had endured and fought against the Israeli intrusion for 13 whole days.
An Israeli soldier is viewing a documentary on the aftermath of the Israeli Invasion to Jenin Camp. He is subjected to horrifying pictures of the mass destruction carried out by bulldozers where he, himself, is one of the invadors. The camera moves between the now demolished houses and alleys, echoing the personal stories, the will and the quest of the Palestinian people to have the basic needs of peace, comfort and a warm house. It is the story of simple dreams and the pursuit of love, which are wiped out with the invasion.
Palestine 2002
by Nizar Hassan
Produced by: Dar Production- Ramallah
Co-produced by: Witness for Art Production-Lebanon
Duration: 60 min.
Sukkar Yafa
“I dreamt that my grandmother held me by the hand and flew with me to Palestine.” She looked down and said “This is our village my grandson.” I descended and she continued her flight.
Palestine grows roots with the forth generation of refugee children when the memories of the uprooting of 1948 become experiential learning activities for youth.
Their research & creative expressions become proactive resources for other children.
This film is a component of an active learning pack commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Uprooting of 1948.
Lebanon 2002
Executive Director: Hicham Kayed
Idea & General Coordinator: Moa'taz Dajani
Production: Arab Resource Center For Popular Arts/ AL-JANA
Duration: 33 min.
Language: Arabic with English Subtitles.
Local
The three filmmakers, who work as TV news cameramen in Ramallah, are caught in their offices when the Israeli military forces occupy the city in March 2002.
This film is a chronicle of the days they spend under curfew, as the siege of chairman Arafat's compound drags on.
It follows the mundane realities of trying to live under military curfew with humor and dignity.
Palestine 2002
By Ismail el-Habbash, Imad Ahmad & Raed el-Helou
Production: Sura Media Production
Duration: 52 min.
Arabic with English Subtitles
LE PAYS DE BLANCHE
“Blanche's Homeland”
« BLANCHE'S HOMELAND » is an intimate, evocative and poetic film that focuses on the Land of Palestine. The film starts in 1988 after the first Intifada and follows the steps of Blanche, the main character, until 2001.
Born in Jaffa, Palestine, where her parents were landowners, Blanche, now 91 years old, hasn't seen her homeland since her first exile to Beirut in 1948 when she was forced to leave her country.
Blanche tells her niece about the history of Palestine where she spent her childhood. Till now, and at her old age she is living with the hope of returning to Jaffa.
A dialogue is established between the old woman and young Palestinians of the third generation living in the Diaspora who were demonstrating in London for their “right of return”, witnessing the continuation of the Palestinian identity throughout the generations and their belonging to their land of Palestine.
Palestine/France 2001
by Maryse Gargour
Production: ROSE Production
Distribution: YGREC Productions Inc.
Duration: 28 min.
French with English Subtitles
There Still Is Ka'ek On The Sidewalk
Original Script: “Ka'ek on the sidewalk” by Ghassan Kanafani
"I could not get rid of my intense feeling that I was ruthlessly insulted by Hameed. My line of thinking was geared towards finding some sort of revenge... I do believe now that this was a stupid case, and the way I thought was even more stupid. However, at the time I would not have accepted to give up my right to clear out the insult.” A school teacher's conscience is put to the test as he tries to assist one of his students, whose life story unfolds in a series of daunting events.
Palestine 2001
By Ismail Habbash
Production: Bethlehem 2000 project
Duration: 26 min.
Language: Arabic with English Subtitles
Yawmiat ‘Ahir
“Diary of a Male Whore”
Esam, a young Arab war refugee who lives in Tel Aviv, makes his living as a male prostitute. His physical pleasure, while making him forget his hunger, reminds him consantly of his childhood in his home village.
Palestine 2001
By Tawfik Abu Wael
Production: Tawfik Abu Wael
Duration: 15 min.
Arabic with Franch Subtitles
Debris
Debris is not just a story of a farmer whose farm has been bulldozed or his house demolished. Debris is a story of a Palestinian whose land has been stolen from him... Debris is a fantasy... and a story of winged dreams that fly far away in order to touch the wide spread sky in order to penetrate reality.
Debris is a story of a generation who suffered humiliation but are still standing.
Palestine 2001
by Abdel Salam Shehadah
Production: Ramattan Studios
Duration: 8 min.
Arabic with French Subtitles
Shababik Falastiniyah
“Shababik Falastiniyah” comprises of five short films made by young Palestinian directors. Each chose his/her window to show part of daily life in Palestine during the long siege of the West Bank and Gaza.
Palestine 2002
By Ala' Abu-Ghoush, Ahmad Habash, Esmail Habbash, Dima Abu-Ghoush, Mohammad Jaber.
Production: Cinema Production Center
Duration: 10 min.
No Dialogue
Haifawi
This is a documentary that chronicles the lives of an elder Palestinian generation who decided to stay in their homes in Haifa after 1948. The subjects of the film are aged women and men who are over seventy narrating their personal experience of the 1948 war, when their families were exiled and kicked out of their homeland.
Palestine, 2000
by Darwish Abu Al-Rish
Production: In Focus TV Cinema Prodcution
Duration: 52 min.
Arabic with English Subtitles
Tear of Peace
“Tear of Peace” is a film that tells the story of the pain and suffering of a Palestinian family since the nakbah in 1948. After the 1967 War, they moved to Jordan, and later on to Syria, Lebanon, Sudan and Libya.
The family moves again to the city of Ariha (Jericho) after the “Gaza-Ariha” accord. After the outbreak of the first Intifada, one of the members of the family dies as a martyr. The Israeli defense forces demolish the family's house which they had built with their own hands, and they arrest their second son. The family now lives in a tent next to their demolished house. This film speaks of the Israeli occupation, its might and popular resistance against it.
Palestine 2003
by George Musleh
Production: ISIS for Audio-Visual Prodcutions
Duration: 34min.
Arabic with English Subtitles
A Room Without a View
This film was promted by the beginning of the 2nd Intifada in Palestine in September 2000.
“No matter how I placed footage collected from the news, protests in Sydney and stereotypic images of Arabs from Hollywood - I could not undo years of demonization and was feeling the difficulty of representation. In this effort I felt hopeless, as I did for the situation in Palestine. Now, nearly 2 years later, and Palestine still under siege - the people will never give up, regardless of how they are seen.”
Australia 2000
by Fadia Abboud
Duration: 4 min.
English
Shatter Hassan
An Arabic fairy tale that takes place in the Netherlands where the invincible hero “Shatter Hassan” becomes a nameless junkie.
The director movingly projects his feelings of being los through this fairy tale character, by voice and by nostalgic images of a Dutch city scored with Arabic music.
It finally becomes the story of the director trying to retrieve his lost childhood by attempting to come to terms with the sense of belonging nowhere.
It is a story about being homeless in a city, being far away from home, having lost your own country, your culture, your roots, your identity...
Palestine/ Jordan/ Netherlands 2001
by Mahmoud al-Massad
Production: Mahmoud al-Massad
Duration: 40 min.
Arabic/Dutch with English Subtitles
HISTORICAL ABSENCE OF MIND
How the end comes to the glory of the Israeli star.
Danish, 2003
by Jannik Hastrup
Production: Jannik Hastrup
Duration: 40 sec
Enlgish
The Children of Ibdaa': To Create Something Out of Nothing”
This film is a 30-minute documentary about a Palestinian children's dance troupe from Dheisheh camp in the West Bank. The children use their performance to express the history, struggle, and aspirations of the Palestinian people, specifically their Right to Return to Their Homeland.
Through interviews and documentation of the children, aged 12 to 14, the video offers insight into their families' displacement from their villages in historical Palestine, the physically and emotionally stressful aspects of life in a refugee camp, and the unique experience of participating in the politically motivated dance troup. The story culminates in a visit by the children for the first time to demolished villages from which their grandparents were expelled in 1948.
USA 2002
by S. Smith Patrick
Production: Cinesmith
Duration: 30 min.
Arabic & English with English Subtitles
500 Dunam on the Moon
In 1948 Israeli forces expelled between 650-950 Palestinians from Ayn Hawd, a 700 year old Muslim village in the Southern Carmel hills. Most of Ayn Hawd's inhabitants ended up in refugee camps on the West and East Banks of the Jordan River, while some 150 villagers managed to remain inside the borders of Israel after the war and became what are known in Israel as "Present Absentees." In 1953 the village was transformed into a Jewish artists' colony, and renamed Ein Hod. This documentary tells the story of the village's original inhabitants, who, after expulsion, settled only 1.5 kilometers away in the outlying hills. This new Ayn Hawd cannot be found on an official maps. Rachel Leah Jones' filmmaking debut is a critical look at the art of dispossession and the creativity of the dispossessed.
France/Palestine, 2000
by Rachel Leah Jones
Duration: 47
Story of a Suicide Bomber
Several years ago suicide operations by Palestinians became a common weapon and a popular method in the struggle against the Israeli occupation.
What inspires these young Palestinian suicide bombers? Aren't their lives worth living? What do they want to achieve?
17-year-old Muhammad Daragmeh from Deheisha refugee camp was one of these suicide bombers. He was talented and optimistic. On March 2 he blew himself up in front of a synagogue in a Jewish Orthodox neighbourhood in West Jerusalem.
The film is a reconstruction of Muhammad's last conversations with his mother, brother and friends.
The anatomy of a suicide bomber was made from inside by Suhier Ismael.
Palestine / Dutch corporation 2002
by Suheir Ismael / Tinus Kramer / Amit Breur
Production: IKON Television/ Amythos Production
Duration: 24 min.
Arabic & English with Subtitles
JEREMY HARDY VS. THE ISRAELI ARMY
British comedian Jeremy Hardy makes a rash decision to travel to Palestine in March 2002 just before the invasion of Bethlehem and the siege of the Nativity Church. He joins a campaign to protect Palestinian farmers from the hostility of settlers, but finds himself caught up in the events of the invasion. He decides to return later, but this time - to defy the Israeli army.
Palestine/ UK 2003
by Leila Sansour
Production: Blue Plates
Duration: 75 min.
English with Arabic Subtitles
Gaza Strip
In January of 2001, American director James Longley traveled to the Gaza Strip. His plan was to stay for two weeks to collect preliminary material for a documentary film on the Palestinian Intifada. It was during his stay that Ariel Sharon was elected as Israeli Prime Minister. As violence erupted around him, Longley threw away his return ticket and filmed for the next three months, acquiring nearly 75 hours of footage.
Gaza Strip is the director's first featured documentary. It is an extraordinary and painful journey into the lives of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip struggling with the day-to-day trials of the Israeli occupation. Filmed in verité style and without narration, Gaza Strip at last gives voice to a population largely ignored by mainstream media.
USA 2002
by James Longley
Distributed in North America by
Arab Film Distribution
Duration: 74 min.
English with Arabic Subtitles
The Satellite Shooters
Using the conventions of the Western genre, “The Satellite Shooters” satirically tells the story of Tawfiq, a young Palestinian boy in Texas trying to find his place in America, and The Kid, a local gunslinger. The film is a critique of the imagination that the Western arises from -- that fantasy land wherein masculine idealization and racial hierarchies lead to the prevaliling cowboy hero and his stunted sidekick. “The Satellite Shooters” is also a story of assimilation and the immigrant experience. Orientalism meets Occidentalism when Tawfiq and The Kid embark upon a mission to change the world. But things don't turn out like they do in the movies...
USA / Palestine 2001
By Annemarie Jacir
Production: Philistine Films
Duration: 16 min.
Arabic / English with Subtitles
