Cinema Palestina 26

Cinema Palestina (s)
Sacred stones

Muayad AlayanLaila Higazi 2001 docu 52 min.

Sacred Stones is a documentary examining the environmental and health harm caused by rapacious stone mining in the West Bank to serve the Israeli construction market. Palestinian stone is today used in the construction of iconic buildings in the far corners of the world. It is also used extensively within Israel. As a result, in the Palestinian villages, cities, and refugee camps of the West Bank, stone is being quarried at unsustainable rates, causing a cascade of environmental, social, and health problems for local populations. Complaints by Palestinians have largely been ignored, not only by relevant international agencies but also by Palestinian officials who seem unable to halt the course the industry has taken. Sacred Stones draws on interviews with traders, labourers, officials, scholars, and local community figures to lift the lid on this vast and potentially ruinous industry.

vimeo.com gedraaid op het Eye on Palestine –festival 2012.

Saken
Sandra Madi, docu 90 min, Jordanië/Palestina 2014, Arab. gesproken met Engelse ondertitels.
Der junge Ibrahim Salameh verlässt 1980 seine Familie in Kuwait und schließt sich der palästinensischen Widerstandsbewegung im Libanon als Freiheitskämpfer an. Zwei Jahre später wird er bei einem Einsatz schwer verletzt und liegt nun querschnittsgelähmt im Veteranen-Krankenhaus der PLO in Amman, wo er von Walid aufopferungsvoll gepflegt wird. Walid musste seine Familie in Ägypten zurück lassen, um in Jordanien Arbeit zu finden. Nun ist er Ibrahims engster Vertrauter, doch die Trennung von Frau und Kindern fällt ihm immer schwerer. In wundervoll komponierten Bildern erzählt Saken die Geschichte einer tiefen und ungleichen Freundschaft.
Vertoond op Arabisches Filmfestival Berlin april 2015
Salata Baladi / Salade maison
Director: Nadia Kamel, Egypt/France/Switzerland 2007, 103 min., Arab. with En. ST
When filmmaker Nadia Kamel realizes that her 10-year-old nephew Nabeel and her 80-year-old mother Naela live in two radically different Egypts, she decides to actively look back on their family’s history and reassess it. Grandmother Mary is the enchanting main character, an engaged communist, long-time journalist and the daughter of a Turkish-Ukrainian Jew and an Italian Catholic. Salata Baladi starts out as a colourful mix, affectionately and subjectively portraying the Kamel family, their love for literature, languages and lively discussions about politics and society over a bowl of pasta with friends. But as the family’s historical, ethnical and religious matters are being slowly uncovered, Mary discovers the dark period of her family’s immigration to Israel in 1946. While Nadia is trying to convince her mother to go visit these relatives, Mary struggles with her own political beliefs that have always prevented her from meeting them. Mary and her generation stand for an ethnic, religious, but especially political cosmopolitanism that their own kids can only partly comprehend. Her personal story reflects Egypt’s complex history between the Kingdom and the British occupation, the independence and the Republic in all its facets.
Jewish-Arab identities in postcolonial cultural discourse. www.youtube.com
Salomon's Stone

Ramzi Maqdisi. Fictie 25 min. Palestina Spanje, 2015. Arab.gesproken met Engelse ondertitels
Hussein, a Palestinian young man, receives a letter from the Israeli post office to appear in person to receive a package. He has to pay the sum of 20.000 $ US dollars in order to collect that package. Hussein’s curiosity to find out what the package contains drives him to sell everything he owns, despite the outright rejection of his mother, the matter that changes their lives afterwards. 
The story is adapted by the novel Blue Light by Hussein Barghouty.
Trailer: www.youtube.com

Salt of this sea

Annemarie Jacir 2008 fiction 109 min.

Soraya, 28, born and raised in Brooklyn, decides to return to live in Palestine, the country her family was exiled from in 1948. On arriving in Ramallah, Soraya tries to recover her grandparent’s money, frozen in an account in Jaffa, but her attempt is rebuffed by the bank. She then meets Emad, a young Palestinian whose ambition, in contrast to hers, is to leave Palestine forever. Tired of the constraints that dictate their lives, Soraya and Emad know that in order to be free, they must take things into their own hands, even it means breaking the law. In this quest for life, we follow their trail through remains of Palestine. This prize winning film is the debut feature length work from Annemarie Jacir (Like Twenty Impossibles) it premiered at Cannes last year to critical acclaim. Featuring Palestinian American poet Suheir Hammad in her first lead role, and emerging Palestinian star Saleh Bakri, Jacir’s film also picked up the Muhr Award for best screenplay at the 2008 Dubai International Film Festival. www.youtube.com

Sand creek equation

Travis Wilkerson 2011 docu 25 min.

With Sand Creek Equation, Travis Wilkerson (An Injury to One, 2002 Who Killed Cock Robin?2005) employs a deceptively poetic style to suggest some terrible parallels link the 2008/9 war on the Gaza Strip to the 1864 massacre of Native Americans at Sand Creek, Colorado. Wilkerson is a US based political auteur, whose many genre defying and award winning works include Accelerated Under–Development: In the Idiom of Santiago Alvarez, his portrait of (and homage to) the great radical Cuban film maker Santiago Alvarez. Other recent works at the limits of radical politics and experimental art include his multimedia performance project “Proving Ground”, combining texts, live music, films, imagery, and audio files to explore the development of bombs, bombing technologies, and their corresponding aesthetics. Sand Creek Equation is his first work directly related to Palestine.

Sand Storm

van Elite Zexer (ook script), Israel/France, 87 min. april 2016 Arabisch gesproken, Engels ondertiteld

As wedding festivities get underway in a Bedouin village in Israel, Jalila finds herself in the awkward position of hosting her husband Suliman’s marriage to a second, much younger wife. During the celebration, Jalila stumbles across eldest daughter Layla’s involvement with a boy from her university—a strictly forbidden liaison that would shame the family. Burying the indignity of Suliman and his new bride living next door, Jalila also tries to contain Layla’s situation by clamping down on her. But younger and possessed of a boundless spirit, Layla sees a different life for herself.

A story of tradition, modernity, and divided family, Sand Storm upends expectations. At its core, Elite Zexer’s mesmerizing debut feature portrays the emotionally layered relationship between mother and daughter, both bound by custom while struggling to adapt to a changing world. Zexer’s artful storytelling derives its authenticity—its complexity of character, rich detail, and subtle humor—from the 10 years she’s spent interacting with Bedouin women. Her fidelity to their experience allows her to beautifully convey the spirit of profound ambivalence Jalila and Layla share.
Trailer: www.youtube.com

'Sara 2014

Khalil Al Mozian. Fictie (film en animatie) 87 min. 2015. Palestina, Verenigde Arab. Emiraten. Producer: Lama Film for Cinema Production

A screenwriter and a director are working on a film about Sara, a Palestinian girl in one of Gaza’s refugee camps, who is a victim of an “honour killing”. The screenwriter is unable to write an ending that is both compelling and fictitious – the happy ending that he had hoped for. Meanwhile, the director, who is insistent on upholding the truth, is as keen to end his film, as he is to help his friend, who is deeply affected by Sara’s story. The film presents the different sides of Gaza, whose people are hurt by everyday issues as much as by death. www.youtube.com

Sayadeen (Fishermen)

Murat Gokmen 2012 | Documentary Short | 14 min
Shot over one morning from a boat off the Gaza coast, Sayadeen (‘Fishermen’) explores what it means to fish off the Gaza coast, within one of the strictest naval blockades on the planet. www.youtube.com

Sbara

Larissa Sansour 2008 Fiction 9 min.

Heavily referencing the 1980 cult classic The Shining by Stanley Kubrick, the video piece SBARA explores the castigation of Arabs in contemporary Western dialogue. By adding an audio montage combining historical and current quotes on the Middle East to footage paraphrasing scenes from the original film, SBARA seeks to expose the cyclical nature of Middle Eastern rhetoric and policies and emphasize the psychological terror inflicted upon those at the receiving end of this repetitively stagnant political discourse. Sansour is a Denmarkbased Palestinian video artist whose work has been exhibited internationally to much acclaim in recent years. vimeo.com

The Secret World

Nicholas Rowe 2009 Fiction 65 min.

The Secret World is a fiction feature film set in Ramallah. Adapting “Lord of the Flies”, William Golding’s classic, dark story of young British schoolboys on a deserted island who descend into brutality, The Secret World follows a group of Palestinian school children who wake up one day to find all the adults have disappeared. Confined in the West Bank by a massive encircling wall, they are left to form their own society and rules. Part mystery thriller, part political satire, The Secret World examines what happens to a society when it is cut off from both outside influences and its own heritage. As such it provides a fascinating doorway into issues such as democracy, human rights, social cooperation and rule of law – all through the eyes of children.

Sedition

Min Sook Lee 2008 docu 16 min.

Sedition explores issues of youth and freedom of expression through the lives of young, politically progressive, Toronto based spoken word artists Rafeef Ziadah and Boonaa Mohammad. A child of Palestinian refugees raised in Lebanon, Rafeef tells powerful and deeply moving stories of repression and resistance. Her spoken word pieces are haunting and defiant. Boonaa traces his roots to the Oromo people, an oppressed minority in Ethiopia. Raised in Canada by parents who fled their home country as refugees, Boonaa’s opinions on topics such as racism, colonialism, and engagement in civic society are fresh and engaging. His energetic performances deliver his message to his audiences with a solid dose of humour. Both Rafeef and Boonaa pack their poetic punches with bull’seye aim at the politics of exile and identity. Their words are spliced with the hypnotic beats of renowned Toronto musical group, LAL.

Self Made

Shira Geffen, fictie 91 min. 2014 Israel, Engels ondertiteld.
Self Made vertelt het verhaal van twee vrouwen – een Israëlische en een Palestijnse – die gevangen zitten in hun eigen wereld. Na een misverstand op een checkpoint, leven ze opeens het leven van de ander aan de andere kant van de grens. Deze conceptuele film verbeeldt het leven van twee sterke vrouwen die uit twee totaal verschillende culturen komen en geeft een menselijk gezicht aan zowel de Israëlische als de Palestijnse kant van het conflict. De toeschouwer krijgt een inkijkje in de dagelijkse worstelingen van beide vrouwen. www.youtube.com

Sense of need

Shady Srour 2004 Fiction 90 min.

Nazarethborn Srour’s autobiographical essay on identity between Israel, Palestine and post 9/11 USA, is an intriguing debut. Mixing between a wide range of visual formats, he offers a series of contemplations on an identity crisis that appears as much artistic performance as eastwest divide. Casting himself in a sequence of Christ cameos, Srour (who describes his film as a “genius feature”) moves between deafening pretensions and selfparody without leaving the viewer knowing quite where the line ought to be drawn.

The Settlement
Stop the Wall – 2015, 3 min.

”I’ve been jailed in my own house. That’s what we are teaching our children: fear is not allowed here”.

He is a palestinian in Jalud village. He keeps stones on his roof to protect his family from israeli settlers. His windows have grids on it since a stone broke the glass and hit the ground right next to a 6-month-old baby’s head. But he insists: “I’m not going anywhere. They will have to kill us all, but we’re not leaving”.

Daily life in Jalud, a village south of Nablus, in the West Bank, is not easy. The village dates back to at least 1596, according to Ottoman tax registers, and in 2007 it’s population was 464 according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS). In the past ten years, however, four illegal israeli settlements and outposts were built right next to it – Esh Kodesh, Adi Ad, Ahiya and Shvut Rachel. Since then, harassments and attacks became part of their routine.

He saw many of his neighbours leave the village as access to their own groves was severely restricted by the army and the settlers – not to mention when they set them on fire. Those who remain are afraid of simply going to work – also afraid of what they might find when they come back. Since Jalud is located in ‘Area C’, as defined by the Oslo Agreements between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the only legal system here is israeli’s military law. This means that, if Jalud’s inhabitants feel threatened by the settlers, their only option would be to call the Israeli army – which is not allowed or willing to arrest israeli citizens. Frequently, the soldiers end up arresting the palestinians themselves when settlers attack the villagers. That is what happened last time that his son complained about the settlers to the police – he was then taken to the interrogation center in Jerusalem. There is no civil law they can resort to. “Still, they called it a democratic state. What democracy are they really talking about?”, asks JP.

In situations like these, Jalud residents can only try to defend themselves, without expecting any help from any institution. The multiple stones on the roofs are a rudimentary way of disencouraging the settlers to came too close to his house. “They usually come when we are sleeping. So there is always someone here in the roof, awake, to warn the people in case something happens”, says JP. Last time the settlers came and faced resistance, they called the army – who attacked Jalud’s people instead, with teargas bombs and pepper spray. Sixteen of them went to the hospital. No settler was arrested. “They [settlers and soldiers] collaborate with each other”, complains the man.

JP’s children have been hit by stones thrown by settlers more than once. A 4 year old boy from the village was hit in the head and was recovered in hospital for many days. Most of the settlers carry personal guns, and they also throw molotov cocktails at the houses in Jalud, notwithstanding that there are children living inside. “This is not something you would expect from human beings”, says JP. Lately, he has decided to put grids on every window since a stone broke the glass and hit the ground right next to a 6-month-old baby’s head. “I feel like I live in a prison inside my own house. If you want to live here, you must to forget about fear. That’s what we are teaching our children: fear is not allowed here”, he says.

However, he is not willing to leave his land. “I never leave the village. I’m not going anywhere. They will have to kill us all – we’re not leaving. We were born here, we live here, and we will die here – they [settlers] must understand this”.

For more information, go to www.stopthewall.org

youtube.com

The Settlers

by Shimon Dotan, documentary 110 min. 2016 France/Canada/Israel/Germany.
Language English, Hebrew/Arabic., English subtitles.
Trailer: www.democracynow.org
In the nearly 50 years since Israel’s decisive victory in the 1967 Six-Day War, hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens have established expanding communities in the occupied territories of the West Bank. Frequently coming into direct conflict with the region’s Palestinian inhabitants, and facing the condemnation of the international community, the settlers have been viewed by some as the righteous vanguard of modern Zionism and by others as overzealous squatters who are the greatest impediment to the possibility of peace in the region.
Director Shimon Dotan (Hot House, 2007 Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Award winner) opens up a space in between these extremes, offering unprecedented access to pioneers of the historical settlement movement and a diverse range of modern-day settlers, religious and secular alike. The result is a comprehensive, provocative exploration of the controversial communities who continue to extend an inordinate influence on the sociopolitical destinies of Israel and Palestine.

As Israel faces international condemnation over its plan to build 153 new settlement homes in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the watchdog group Peace Now reports Israel’s defense minister has approved the construction of the new Jewish-only homes last week. The plan sparked swift criticism from U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who called the settlements “an affront to the Palestinian people and to the international community.” In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Ban Ki-moon’s criticism gives “a tailwind to terrorism” and that the “U.N. lost its neutrality and moral force a long time ago.” This comes as President Barack Obama spoke at the Israeli Embassy to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day, saying, “We are all indeed Jews.” We examine the history and consequences of decades of Israeli settlement construction on Palestinian lands in an interview with Shimon Dotan, the director of an extraordinary new film, “The Settlers,” which just had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. “It is such a heated and often discussed topic, but I find that so little is known about it, and often the discussion is misinformed,” Dotan says.

The Seventh Summit

by Elia Youssef 2016 | Documemtary | 66 min

The Seventh Summit is the story of mountaineers who have taken on the Seven Summits Challenge—climbing to the top of the highest mountain peak on each of the seven continents. Four seasoned mountain climbers attempt the toughest climb of their careers, Alaska’s Mount Denali. Sheikh Mohammed Al Thani from Qatar and two of his close friends, Raed Zidan from Palestine and Massoud Kalafji from Iran, who are attempting their seventh and final summit, are now joined by Suzanne Al Houby, a Palestinian mountain climber who was the first Arab woman to summit Mt. Everest. Will they realize their long-awaited goal?
Trailer: vimeo.com
Winner: Gold Award, Spotlight Documentary Film Awards, 2016; Grand Jury Prize, Van Gogh Award,2017 Amsterdam Film Festival; Award of Excellence – Foreign Documentary Feature, Hollywood International Independent Documentary Awards, February 2017; Honorable Mention, Documentary Feature, Los Angeles Film Awards, CA 2017

Shadi in the beautiful well

Mahdi Fleifel 2003 Fiction 11 min.

An autistic boy, Shadi, lives in the heart of a Lebanese Palestinian refugee camp where he is constantly tormented by his neighbours’ kids, who steal his pet dove. However, an unexpected present from relatives living abroad changes everything… vimeo.com

Shadow of absence

Nasri Hajjaj 2007 docu 84 min.

This absorbing documentary explores the anxiety of Palestinian exile through an interrogation of relationships between place, home, and death. Bringing together fascinating footage, interviews, and testimonies from Palestinian families and comrades whose loved ones and friends have died and been buried in exile, director Hajjaj spans the globe, bringing extraordinary personal stories together from Vietnam to London. Each story is unique, personal, and often surprising together these portraits of Palestinians and their resting places are about life not death a life experienced in exile, in revolution, in flight, and in every corner of our world. Along with many others, the film tells the resonant stories of the burials of legendary Palestinian exiles including Naji el Ali, Edward Said, and Ibrahim Abu Lughod. dorftv.at

Shake

Deema Dabis. Drama 9 min. Israel 2014.

A gripping portrait of an encounter between an Israeli airport interrogator and a Palestinian-American traveler who is trying to enter the country. vimeo.com

Sharqiya

Israel/France/Germany, 2012, 82 minutes 
Director: Ami Livne
Official Selection – Berlinale Panorama 2012 
Official Selection – ACID-Cannes 2012

Kamel lives with his brother and sister-in-law at the edge of the Negev desert on land that has belonged to their Bedouin family for generations. When state officials order the demolition of the few shacks where the family resides, Kamel must come up with a plan to save his home. 

Co-presented by: Rabbis for Human Rights North America, AJEEC-NISPED, and Jewish Alliance for Change www.youtube.com

The Shebabs of Yarmouk

Axel Salvatori-Sinz 2011 docu 12 min.

A poignant tribute to the Palestinians of Yarmouk by Daryl Meador. The Electronic Intifada, 12 February 2014. Ala’a is one of five youth featured in a moving film about life in the Yarmouk refugee camp in Syria. “Why do I want to leave? In Damascus, a soul is born serene and dies used up.” Ala’a, a young aspiring filmmaker, decries the lack of freedoms in Yarmouk camp, a neighborhood of Damascus, as he sits in contemplation in a sunlit room. Ala’a is one of the five shebab (youth) that make up the The Shebabs of Yarmouk, a poignant new documentary by French director Axel Salvatori-Sinz. Elegantly alternating between moments of intense conversation, poetic monologue, and subtle, symbolic observation and exploration, the film paints a beautiful portrait of a tight-knit group of third-generation Palestinian refugees inside Yarmouk camp. It delves deep into their identities, precariously situated between Palestine and Syria, in a place where citizenship is hard to find or define. Prominent young theater actor Hassan Hassan, his fiancée Waed, and their friends Ala’a, Samer and Tasneem are the protagonists of the film. Shot over the course of three years, the film brings you affectingly close to the group as it approaches adulthood and negotiates difficult choices with grace and acuity. Melancholic aura. Shebabs of Yarmouk takes on a melancholic aura when considering the current situation in Yarmouk. Finished in 2011, the film’s context is situated directly before conditions in the camp began to corrode drastically as conflicts between rebel and regime forces increased. Today, the Syrian army controls the perimeter of the camp, allowing in only minute amounts of aid, a siege that has caused widespread hunger and dozens of deaths from starvation among the 18,000 or so residents remaining. Most of the 160,000 persons who lived in Yarmouk before the war have fled. The situation has gotten progressively worse since armed opposition groups entered the camp in December 2012 and the Syrian army began the siege. Fighting has left much of the camp in ruins. In the midst of this, the young actor Hassan Hassan was recently reported killed, the victim of torture inside a Syrian regime prison. Committed Hassan Hassan stands out in the film, not only for his charisma and energy, but for his humbling commitment to Yarmouk camp itself, where he saw opportunity for growth and creativity. Early in the film, he admits, “I love the camp. I love its details … If I could put up but one theater play a year, and it is staged only in the camp, I’ll be satisfied and happy.” Still a Palestinian, Hassan does not forget his right of return and compensation for all that his grandparents lost in the Nakba — the ethnic cleansing undertaken by Zionist forces shortly after the couple’s marriage in 1948. We witness Hassan’s charming humor as he states, “They had a new house, brand new pots and pans. Everything was new, even the frying pan for eggs. They even had four pounds of laban (yogurt) in the fridge … Motherfuckers, I need this laban back.” To live, work or marry in Yarmouk, young men are required to serve in the military, a commitment that Hassan concedes to so he can make a life there. Over the span of the film, we see his hair shaved off for draft, grow out and be cut again multiple times. Hassan’s peers relate to his connection to the camp, but are less willing to accept a life in it. “Up to now, I still haven’t got a passport but I am expected to do military service,” Ala’a explains. “It is called the Palestinian Liberation Army, though it doesn’t liberate anything. It’s directly accountable to the Syrian government. Humanness is desperately missing in this army.” Beyond these political expositions, much of the film’s beauty lies in its encapsulation of the shebab’s more personal and intimate narratives. Hassan and Waed lovingly argue over their future and finances. Waed and Tasneem discuss their hesitancy to raise families in their current environment, asking, “Will we forever have to be the camp’s children? Won’t we ever become a country’s children?” Breathtaking. In a breathtaking five-minute candid single take, Ala’a describes his relationship with a woman he dated who received an abortion. He laughs and cries as classical music playing in the background swells around him. Noticing the camera, he asks “It’s recording?” before quietly telling the viewers in English, “When you lose the meaning, you lose everything.” Interspersed in the film are striking shots that reveal the details of the camp itself. Views of the clustered, layered buildings and narrow streets reveal its natural flow. The youth cough and laugh while they beat dust out of a rug or sit and converse on rooftops covered in broken appliances, satellite dishes, tangled wires and poles. Images of escape and return, entrapment and wonder recur. A train departing, birds circling the stacked rooftops, and open windows revealing the camp behind them appear as motifs throughout the film. Coupled with Palestinian singer Reem Kelani’s beautifully composed score, or often accompanied by the camp’s adhan (call to prayer), these interludes make a strong impact. They illustrate the subtle and precarious contradictions of the shebab and the camp itself, described by Samer as the “non-place settled inside [them].” Unbearable. At the end of the film, the shebab allude to repercussions felt in the camp as the popular uprisings began. Since that time, it has become a site of intense conflict, destruction and siege. In a statement to The Electronic Intifada, director Axel Salvatori-Sinz explained that after the culmination of the film, all of the shebab fled Yarmouk except Hassan and Waed. “It was an act of resistance,” the director said. “The camp was [Hassan’s] place and it was not possible for him to leave the camp behind him.” Eventually, conditions became unbearable. “The Syrian regime decided to eradicate Yarmouk camp, stopping the provision of food … Hassan and Waed decided to try to escape.” With exits of the camp blocked by Syrian forces, Hassan attempted a bribe but was arrested. Late last year, Hassan’s family was notified of his death inside prison, which many have alleged was a result of torture. As much as a portrait of a place and a generation, Shebabs of Yarmouk now acts as a solemn celebration of Hassan Hassan, who never wavered in his commitment to Yarmouk as a place of livelihood, creative opportunity and beauty. He longed for a homeland, but resolved that, “Palestine is the camp, and the camp is a piece of Palestine,” and so he strove to create an ideal within it. The spirit and beauty that he found is realized in The Shebabs of Yarmouk. As thousands still languish in the camp, we cannot — for Hassan’s sake — let Yarmouk be forgotten. Watch the trailer of The Shebabs of Yarmouk, via IMDB: www.imdb.com. Daryl Meador is a graduate student studying media at The New School, who recently lived and volunteered in Nablus. Follow her on Twitter @yalladaryl.

The Shepered Women's Secret

by Basma SweityBeit Awwa
The film is about Fatima 75 years old and Um Al Abed 90 years old, which are shepherds since they were 10 years old until today. They tell us their difficulties in the fields because of the historical changes.Fatima sings to her son memory in the field.

www.youtube.com

 

Shivering in Gaza

Geert van Kesteren docu. 90 min. 2015 Nederland/Gaza

Shivering in Gaza is a short documentary (31 min) documenting the work of Dutch trauma treatment expert Jan Andreae, who meets with Gaza-based aid workers after the 2014 Israel-Gaza war and helps them to cope with fear, trauma and grief. Jan Andreae: ʻthe essence of trauma is that it needs attentionʼ.

Trailer: vimeo.com

The Shooter

Ihab Jadallah 2007 fiction 8 min.

“Palestine is occupied by the international media. It is being staged by the international media for sensational newscasts. Palestinians have become “performers” of dramatic international evening newscasts…” Jadallah’s short film looks in this way to explode questions of violence, stereotypes, conflict, and consumer media from the perspective of a new generation of aspiring artists based in Palestine. Detached from many of the daily horrors of the occupation, Ramallah filmmaker and artist Jadallah feels himself nonetheless compelled by producers, funders, collaborating artists, and viewers to present himself and his work in accordance with a “metascript” composed of victims, violences, and shooters. The film is at once a parody and a rejection of these constraints. www.youtube.com

Shout

Ester GouldSabine Lubbe Bakker 2009 docu 85 min.

Born in the Golan Heights, Druze buddies Ezat and Bayan have lived their entire lives under Israeli occupation. Thanks to Syrian parentage, they get the opportunity to study in Damascus. But students can cross the border just once annually, meaning they can’t visit home for 12 months. With a solid dose of selfconfidence and testosterone, these young men depart seeking adventure. In Damascus, they hope to discover Arab roots and “live the dream”. But the capital turns out to be a drab metropolis where they don’t feel at home and apparently have to be careful about what they say. They find people from the Golan Heights often get the cold shoulder, and are soon compelled to choose between their new home and the village of their birth. From “Shouting Hill”, on the border between Syria and the occupied Golan Heights, Ezat and Bayan now call out to their families left behind. www.youtube.com

The Shouting Fence

Monica Steen 2004 Muziekuitvoering 48 min.

Orlando Gough and Richard Chew composed The Shouting Fence based on a picture in a newspaper showing a Palestinian woman with a megaphone. The piece Is based on the division of the Syrian village Majdal Shams in the Golan heights. The village is divided In two by Introducing a no-go zone. The only way for villagers to communicate with friends and family is by shouting. Every Friday-night people gather on both sides of the border to shout the news, the latest gossip, their mutual love and feelings of frustration about the impossibility of embracing each other. vimeo.com

Shuja’iyah: Land of the Brave

Hadeel Assali 2014 | Documentary Short | 5 min
One filmmaker’s personal reflection on the meaning of “crimes against humanity” in the context of Israel’s ‘Operation Protective Edge’ waged in the Gaza Strip in 2014, using footage of her family filmed in the summer of 2013 juxtaposed against audio from the summer of 2014. vimeo.com

The School at Khan al-Ahmar

by Helen Eisler; documentary 17 min, UK 2017, English
Trailer: vimeo.com

A small school for Bedouin children in the desert lands of the occupied West Bank has unintentionally become a critical player in the future viability of the two-state solution in Israel-Palestine. This film tells the story of the ‘mud and tyre’ school at Al Khan Al Ahmar, where an on-going legal battle struggles to overturn demolition orders and imminent forced eviction by the Israeli government, and explores the impact on the surrounding Bedouin Palestinian communities.

Sleeping Bears

by Keren Margalit, Israel 2017 Hebrew 73 min.
(Niet zeker of dit iets te maken heeft met Palestijnen/Palestina).
Trailer: www.berlinale.de
When the therapist of teacher Hadas dies in an accident, she receives his session notes in the form of threatening letters. An intrinsically personal story becomes an expedition into the depths of contemporary Israel.

Soufra

by Thomas A. Morgan, documentary 73 min. 2017 Lebanon/USA/Singapore. Arabic with English subtitles.

Trailer: www.youtube.com
After spending her entire life in the Burj el-Barajneh refugee camp near Beirut, MARIAM SHAAR decided to change her life. Gathering together with other refugee women from Syria, Iraq, Palestine, and Lebanon, and with a little help from Kickstarter, she expands her modest food business into catering. Despite her status as a Palestinian—barred from better jobs in Beirut—Shaar overcomes the obstacles to make Soufra (which means a table of delicious plenty) a success and to help other women heal the deep wounds of war through inspirational food. “A stirring tale of empowerment, Soufra shows how societal change can begin with small steps.”—The New York Times. Portland Film Festival

Still Alive in Gaza (Aisheen)

by Nicolas Wadimoff, documentary (film/animation) 86 min, Qatar, Switzerland, Israel 2010, Arabic, Engl. ST.

Trailer: www.youtube.com

AISHEEN (Still alive in Gaza) tells the story about the wait after the disaster. The wait for a better future inside the biggest prison in the world. Where is the ghost town?, asked the little boy to the theme park attendant. “It’s there, right there. But it has been bombed Do you want to see it? It is with these words that the film, Aisheen, begins – an impressionist journey through a devastated Gaza after the war. And the ghost town? Gaza is the ghost town.

The Sunbird

by Ayed Nabaa; documentary 60 min. Jordan/Palestine/Qatar/France/Germany 2016. Arabic/French/English
The sun bird is an ancient Palestinian bird symbolizing freedom, This bird is now inscribed on many official Palestinian stamps produced and distributed in some European countries because there is no official post in Palestine. The Sun Bird and its design on the post stamps comes as an artistic action to declare the State of Palestine, this action is an attempt by Arabs and Foreigners artist since they believe that the Palestinian State still exists even if it does not show on the world map..

Stitching Palestine

By Carol Mansour, docu 78 min, 2017 Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine

Twelve Palestinian women talk of their life before the Diaspora, their memories, lives and identity; all connected by the enduring thread of embroidery.
Resilient, determined and articulate women from disparate walks of life stitch together the story of their homeland, their dispossession, and their unwavering determination that justice will prevail. The individual weaves into the collective, yet remaining distinctly personal portraying a land whose position was fixed on the map of the world, and is now embroidered on its face.

Trailer: vimeo.com

Stone Cold Justice

on Israel’s torture of Palestinian children,
John Lyons, Janine Cohen and Sylvie Le Clezio Australië 2014
A film which has been produced by a group of Australian journalists has sparked an international outcry against Israel after it explicitly detailed Tel Aviv’s use of torture against Palestinian children.
The film, titled ‘Stone Cold Justice’ documents how Palestinian children, who have been arrested and detained by Israeli forces, are subjected to physical abuse, torture and forced into false confessions and pushed into gathering intelligence on Palestinian activists. Australia’s foreign minister Julie Bishop has spoken out against Israeli’s use of torture stating that “I am deeply concerned by allegations of the mistreatment of Palestinian children,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor has described the human rights abuses documented in the film as “intolerable”. But rights groups have slammed this statement, saying that the Israelis are doing nothing to change Tel Aviv’s policy to torture Palestinian children. Last year a report by the United Nations International Emergency Children’s Fund or UNICEF concluded that Palestinian children are often targeted in night arrests and raids of their homes, threatened with death and subjected to physical violence, solitary confinement and sexual assault. The film Stone Cold Justice has sparked an international outcry about Israel’s treatment of children in Israeli jails. However, rights groups have criticized Tel Aviv for not doing anything to create a policy that protects Palestinian children against arbitrary arrest and torture.
trailer: vimeo.com

A Stone’s Throw from Prison

Raquel Castells  Documentary / Palestine, Spain / 2013 / 65 mins
Growing up in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is not easy. When you leave home for school, your mother can’t be sure of when you’ll be back. Rami, Ahmed, Mohammed, three among thousands, this documentary is their story, but also that of courageous Israelis and Palestinians working to cut abuses, stop conflict and heal its consequences vimeo.com

The stones cry out

Yasmine Perni 2013 docu 56 min.

The Stones Cry Out gives a detailed account of the historical, cultural, and political place occupied by Christians in the recent history of the Palestinian nation, and in its struggle against colonialism. Covering a broad sweep of history, from 1948 to the present day, Yasmine Perni’s documentary includes interviews with preeminent leaders, scholars, and activists, and conveys some of the very specific challenges faced by Christians living in Palestine today. www.youtube.com

Stories from behind the wall

Alia Arasoughly 2006 docu 24 min.

This short documentary was made to highlight the medical impact of the closure of Jerusalem and the reinforcement of the Wall around the city and other Palestinian population centres. With testimonies from Israeli and Palestinian physicians, activists, and ordinary residents, it succinctly tells the devastating story of an essential healthcare system under a sustained assault – patients isolated from hospitals, doctors unable to reach their work, and permits denied to the most vulnerable.

 

The Story of Milk and Honey

by Melanie-Rose K’Alvin, experimental, 10 min.

The Story of Milk and Honey is a short experimental video belonging to a larger project, which includes photographs, drawings and text, detailing an un-named individual’s failure to write a love story. Through voiceover narration that weaves together images, letters and songs, a story of defeat transpires into a journey that explores how we collect and perceive information, understand facts, history, images and sound and where the individual is to be found in the midst of the material.
trailer: www.youtube.com

Stranger in my home

Sahera Dirbas 2007 docu 37 min.

Stranger in My Home relates the stories of eight Palestinian Jerusalemite families that were twice turned into refugees in their own city: in 1948 and again in 1967. After 40 years they recall the events that occurred in the Moghrabi Quarter of Jerusalem during the 1967 war and led to their second dispossession at the hands of the Israeli government. Each family then travels to see its original house which was seized and occupied in the war of 1948. Their original houses are located in the Baqa’a, Talbiyeh, Qatamon and Mosrarah neighbourhoods of what is now West Jerusalem. In some of the most moving and surprising scenes, several of these families are able to enter their former homes and enter into discussions with the Israeli occupants. Alongside these oral testimonies and personal experiences, the film enjoys an interview with the renowned Israeli architectural historian David Kroyanker who has researched and published authoritative studies on these houses and their painful histories. www.youtube.com

Suspended Time

by Ahmed Abu Nasser, Mohammed Abu NasserAssem Nasser, Amin Nayfeh, Alaa Al AliYazan Khalil, Asma Ghanem, Muhannad SalahatAyman AzraqMahdi Fleifel 2013 | DocumentaryDramaVideo art | 57 min
Suspended Time is a film program comprised of 9 short films by 9 Palestinian filmmakers and artists looking back at the 20 years that followed the signing of the 1993 Oslo Accords. The spectrum of films reflect, on the one hand, the geographical dispersal and fragmentation of Palestinians and, on the other, the diversity of the Accords’ consequences on the various aspects of Palestinians’ lived experience. This work is a montage of confined spaces, physical and mental; handshakes; journeys; sounds; and time.
In the article “The Day After,” Edward Said provided an immediate and very sombre reading of the Oslo Agreement signed in September 1993. He begins with the reading of the theatrics of the signing ceremony itself, and moves on to declare that the entire agreement is the suspension of most of Palestinians’ rights. After 20 years of the signing, this suspension has created a confusing and distraught present in the lives of Palestinians. How can one dwell in the today and produce images that contain a potential for standing as historical reference? Images that feed on a point in history that acts as both beginning and end, and the resonance of this political rupture that we live today. Suspended Time is a film comprised of nine short films. It is a “montage” of impressions, reflections and products of imagination by nine filmmakers and artists. It is a montage of confined spaces, physical and mental; handshakes; journeys; sound, and time.
The films, which were selected as part of an open call in late summer 2013 and produced by Idioms Films, are: vimeo.com

Suzan's Fingerprint

by Shams Ghareeb, Zakeih JadbaTulkarem
The film is about how Susan who was the director of Orphans House Committee in Tulkarem and other Palestinian women member of the committee established it from nothing after 1967 war until become a big building as a shelter for orphans until today

Compilatie van shorts op youtube: Palestinian Women’s Oral History (2016 of 2017) V
www.youtube.com

Sweets

Director: Joseph Pitchhadze 2013 Fiction 132 minutes

A cinematic masterpiece, which reflects on Israeli society through the extended metaphor of rivaling candy businesses. Salah, an Israeli-Arab enterpriser, strives to bring happiness to the children of the Israel’s Arab sector by opening a new chain of candy stores. An Israeli corporation that controls the Israeli candy market sees the new business initiative as a real threat, for business as well as culturally and politically. The struggle for control of the candy market is deteriorating rapidly into a brutal violence. Where will it end?
Themes: Narrative  www.youtube.com

The Syrian bride

Eran Reklis fiction Israel 2006 97 min

The Syrian Bride wikipedia.org “Hebrew language” Hebrew: הכלה הסורית‎) is a 2004 film directed by wikipedia.org “Eran Riklis” Eran Riklis. The story deals with a wikipedia.org “Druze” Druze wedding and the troubles the politically unresolved situation creates for the personal lives of the people in and from the village. The movie’s plot looks at the wikipedia.org “Arab–Israeli conflict” Arab–Israeli conflict through the story of a family divided by political borders, and explores how their lives are fractured by the region’s harsh political realities.
The film has garnered critical acclaim and has won or been nominated internationally for several notable awards.

Plot
Set in the summer of 2000, Mona (wikipedia.org “Clara Khoury” Clara Khoury), a young wikipedia.org” \o “Druze” Druze woman living at wikipedia.org “Majdal Shams” Majdal Shams in the wikipedia.org  “Golan Heights” Golan Heights, is about to marry a successful wikipedia.org “Syria” Syrian actor. Following the hostilities between wikipedia.org “Israel” Israel and wikipedia.org “Syria” Syria there is now the demilitarised wikipedia.org “UNDOF” UNDOF zone between wikipedia.org l “History_since_the_Six-Day_War” “Golan Heights” occupied Golan and Syria observed by wikipedia.org “United Nations” United Nations staff. Crossing of the zone is extremely rare as it is only granted by both sides under special circumstances. It has taken 6 months to obtain permission from the Israeli administration for Mona to leave the Golan. When Mona crosses she will not be able to return to her family on the Golan even to visit. Mona is a bit hesitant also because she doesn’t know her husband-to-be.
Her father Hammed ( wikipedia.org “Makram Khoury” Makram Khoury) openly supports the reunification with Syria and has just been released on bail from an Israeli prison. For this personal sacrifice he is respected by the elders of the village—yet when there is word that his son Hattem ( wikipedia.org “Eyad Sheety (page does not exist)” Eyad Sheety) who has married Evelyna ( wikipedia.org” \o “Evelyn Kaplun (page does not exist)” Evelyn Kaplun), a Russian doctor, breaking with Druze tradition, is returning to see his sister off, they make it clear to the father that they will shun him too if he allows Hattem to come to the wedding.
Mona’s sister Amal ( wikipedia.org “Hiam Abbass” Hiam Abbass) is unhappily married and has two daughters who are almost grown up. She is considered a somewhat free spirit as she and her daughters wear trousers. Now she is even considering training as a social worker. Her elder daughter wants to marry the son of a pro-Israeli villager. Amal’s husband feels put in an awkward position, as tradition demands that the male head of the family controls the other members of the family to act in a socially acceptable manner. Amal is seen advising her daughter not to give up her studies irrespective of whatever pressures she may face from the family or society. This gives insight into Amal’s persona.
The second brother, Marwan ( wikipedia.org “Ashraf Barhom” Ashraf Barhom), is a shady merchant doing deals in Italy and obviously a womanizer. Yet nobody seems to object to his slightly unsettled lifestyle—quite a contrast to his brother who is only greeted by his mother and siblings.
Then, after the wedding feast, the bride is escorted to the border where her emigration runs into trouble, as the Israeli government has just decided to stamp the passports of Golan residents bound for Syria as leaving Israel. The Syrian officials still regard the Golan as part of Syria under foreign occupation, and a stamp like that is viewed as an wiktionary.org “wikt:underhanded” underhanded ploy by the Israelis to force the Syrian side to implicitly acknowledge the annexation.
So the UN liaison officer Jeanne goes back and forth until the Israeli official who put the stamp into the passport in the first place finally agrees to erase it with some wikipedia.org “Correction fluid” correction fluid. Yet just as the problem seems to have been peacefully resolved, the solution is threatened by a change of position on the Syrian side.
In the end when it looks as if the wedding will be delayed at least for some days (which is regarded as a bad omen), the bride takes matters into her own hands. In our final view of her, she is walking with energy and determination toward the Syrian border; at the same time Amal walks away from the group with a determined face as if she would shatter the invisible fences which prevent her from pursuing her dreams.
Trailer: youtube.com

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