Cinema Palestina 24

Cinema Palestina (p)
Private

Costanzo, Saverio Drama. 90 min. Italië 2004. Kleur, 16:9 anamorphic. Arabisch/Hebreeuws/Engels Dolby Digital 2.0. Ondertiteling: Nederlands & Frans. Based on a true story, Private offers an intensely intimate view of events as they unfold for a middle class Palestinian family whose home is invaded and occupied by Israeli troops. Refusing to abandon their home, the father, a welleducated teacher, is faced with a struggle to retain his dignity, and the support of his family as the it is subjected to increasing levels of stress. Featuring an awardwinning performance by leading actor Mohammed Bakri, the film’s claustrophobic set and camera work combine to make it at once deeply unsettling and profoundly moving. Winner – FIPRESCI Award San Francisco International Film Festival, 2005. Golden Leopard Award Locarno Film Festival, 2004. Best Actor (Mohammed Bakri) Buenos Aires International Film Festival, 2005 “All Palestinian kids in Israel used to hold the Israeli flag and sing for Israel in Arabic each year we used to do that, to celebrate – we would prepare dance shows, theatre plays and songs! A lot of decorations and flags went everywhere… and no one said anything. But the next day, which is the official independence day, when all families and friends were supposed to go out on a picnic somewhere or to the beach… my father used to feel sick and we never left the house”. (Statement by director Ula Tabari). In her insightful and personal debut documentary Tabari intelligently probes the multiple paradoxes and tensions effecting Palestinian identity politics inside pre 1967 Israeli borders. De Palestijnse leraar Mohammad woont met zijn vrouw en vijf kinderen in een dorpje in de Gaza-strook. Hun huis wordt bezet door Israëlische soldaten die op de bovenste verdieping gaan wonen. Ondanks de gevaarlijke situatie weigert Mohammad te vertrekken, omdat hij overtuigd is van zijn eigen geloof in vreedzame oplossingen. Elk familielid reageert anders op de angst die deze situatie met zich meebrengt. Alleen de oudste dochter Mariam accepteert de situatie meteen, al vindt ze, in tegenstelling tot haar vader, dat de soldaten wél met geweld mogen worden bestreden. Mohammads beslissing lijkt te werken, maar hoe lang houdt de familie stand onder de druk? De briljante cast bestaat uit sterren uit zowel Israël als Palestina. Gebaseerd op een waargebeurd verhaal. Locarno Film Festival Gouden Luipaard voor Beste Film. Locarno Film Festival Bronzen Luipaard Beste Acteur Mohammad Bakri. (Vertoond in Hilversum 2013). www.youtube.com

Promised Lands

Susan Sontag 1974 docu 137 min.

Susan Sontag’s only documentary, Promised Lands was filmed in the aftermath of the October 1973 war and initially banned by Israeli censors wary of “damaging the country’s morale”’. Recently rereleased after being inexplicably forgotten, this immediately unique essay film marks a critical moment in Zionist society, but also in Sontag’s own thinking on images and power. Against a back of post–war anomie and anti–Arab sentiment, her film traces fault lines in a militarised society, combining observational meditations (landscapes, military patrols, cinemas, cemeteries, psychiatric wards, national museums) with profound interviews (with author Yoram Kaniuk and physicist Yuval Ne’eman). A prominent public intellectual at the time of its making, Sontag was already penning her celebrated essays On Photography, stressing that medium’s acquisitive violences and desensitizing effects. That she chose to turn her own lens onto images of faraway wars and the spectacle of human suffering at the same moment raises fascinating questions, making Promised Lands not just an exceptional document of a critical juncture in Middle East history, but also compelling viewing for anyone engaging with Sontag’s work. www.youtube.com

Promises

B.Z. GoldbergJustine ShapiroCarlos Bolado 2002 USA docu 114 min. Arabisch/Hebreeuws Dolby Digital 2.0. Nederlands & Frans ondertiteld..

In Promises volgen we een groep negen- tot dertienjarigen uit Jeruzalem: kinderen van zowel gematigde als extremistische Palestijnse en Israëlische ouders. Schokkend is te zien hoe sommigen van hen al hopeloos verstrikt zijn geraakt in de haat van de regio. Hoopgevend is dat andere kinderen door persoonlijk contact ondervinden dat vooroordelen vaak voortkomen uit gebrek aan kennis van andermans cultuur. De veel bekroonde documentaire Promises laat op aangrijpende wijze zien dat kinderen niet alleen als slachtoffers van hun omgeving moeten worden bekeken. Ze spelen immers een grote rol bij de toekomstige ontwikkelingen in hun land. Academy Award Nominee Best Documentary, International Film Festival Rotterdam Audience Awar. www.youtube.com

The Purple Field
Nasri Hajjaj (ook producer). docu 18 min, Palestine 2015,  Arab. en Duits gesproken met Engelse ondertitels. DCP. Tamer, a Palestinian-Syrian, flees war-torn Syria and ends up in Austria after a three-month journey through Europe. He waits for the government’s response to his asylum application. www.youtube.com
The Qalandia Report

Tamar Goldschmidt 2004 docu 8 min.

This new short documents the long and slowly moving lines of Palestinians queuing at the infamous Qalandiya checkpoint between Jerusalem and Ramallah. The line of queuing people is termed by the occupation forces ‘The Humanitarian Line’…. www.youtube.com

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