East Jerusalem in the year 2000. Palestinians wait… for the Messiah, Godot, or Saladin? What's the difference? The film shows the lives of Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem under occupation, without the most elementary rights, despite being considered citizens of Israel.
Tawfik Abu Wael was born in the Palestinian town of Um El-Fahim in Israel, in 1976. He graduated from Tel Aviv University, where he studied film directing, and worked in the film archive from 1996 to 1998. He taught drama at the Hassan Arafe School in Jaffa from 1997 to 1999.
Tawfik Abu Wael -- 53' (Palestine: 2001)
A documentary on three generations of young people growing up in war-torn Beirut.
Mai Masri (b. 1959) is a Palestinian filmmaker largely based in Lebanon. Masri received a degree in film production from San Francisco State University. She has directed and produced several award-winning films that have been broadcast and shown internationally.
Mai Masri & Jean Chamoun -- Documentary, 50', Arabic (Lebanon: 1988)
Abdel Salam Shehadeh is from Rafah in Gaza, Palestine. He has worked in television production and media and as a camera and sound technician, and has worked in various capacities for international news crews. Director of more than 15 Documentary films such as The Shadow, the Cane, and Debris which had a good impact in many international festivals.
Abdel Salam Shehadeh -- 35' (Palestine: 1998)
Filmed in 1992, this study of Islamic movements in the Gaza Strip includes interviews with some of the Hamas leaders expelled in 1992 as well as a clear definition of the role of women. The story of two brothers, one a supporter of the PLO’s Fatah and the other favoring the Hamas movement, adds personalization.
Hanna Musleh was born in 1954 in Beit Jala to Wahbe and Nijmeh Musleh. During his youth he attended the Mennonite School in Beit Jala, and later went to study in Leningrad State University in Russia for a degree in anthropology, finally obtaining his M.A. from the Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology at Manchester University in England. Musleh then returned to Palestine and has worked as a professor at Bethlehem University since 1980 where he has taught cultural studies, history, anthropology and currently teaches film appreciation, anthropology of religion and philosophy.
Hanna Musleh -- 52' (1993)
A classic in Palestinian feature filmmaking -- a traditional Palestinian wedding is affected when, as a stipulation for granting a permit for the celebration, a local Israeli military commander demands to be invited.
Michel Khleifi was born in Nazareth in 1950. In 1970 he traveled to Belgium where he studied television and theatre directing. Considered the founder of modern Palestinian cinema, Khleifi produced and directed several full-length features and documentaries for international release and broadcast. His previous documentary feature, Fertile Memory (1980), was the first Palestinian film to be shown at the Cannes FF and was a groundbreaking work, both on a political and aesthetic level, treating the struggle for women's freedom and emancipation, across the generations and under occupation, in a haunting lyrical style that became all his own.
Michel Khleifi -- 111', Arabic/Hebrew with English Subtitles (Belgium: 1987)
Documentary on the women of South Lebanon resisting Israeli occupation.
Mai Masri & Jean Chamoun -- 50', Arabic (Lebanon: 1986)
Mai Masri (b. 1959) is a Palestinian filmmaker largely based in Lebanon. Masri received a degree in film production from San Francisco State University. She has directed and produced several award-winning films that have been broadcast and shown internationally.
"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…"
Hicham Kayed is a 2008 Joiner Fellow. A Palestinian living in Lebanon, he is the director of The Arab Resource Center for Popular Arts, organizations which work conducting writing and film workshops for Palestinian youth living in the refugee camps in Lebanon. He is the multimedia coordinator of AL-JANA, the Arab Resource Center for Popular Arts in Beirut.
Hicham Kayed -- 32' (Lebanon: 2002)
This film revolves around the love story of Yasmine and Ziad (a young man from her village). Though the young couple plans to wed, Yasmine is faced with the fact that she has been promised to another suitor by her parents. As the story develops and the complexity of Yasmine's dilemma intensifies, the wall begins to have an ominous presence. Najjar alludes to the expansion of the invasive structure in hints strewn throughout the first part of the film. Scenes of Yasmine and Ziad in their daily lives are interspersed with impacting shots of white village homes against dramatic Palestinian landscape. This landscape is later interrupted by the construction of the wall.
Writer/ Director Najwa Najjar received her BA in Political Science and Economics, and MA in Film and Video production from the US. She has worked in both documentary and fiction since 1999. She has reviewed books for acclaimed journals, and her articles on Palestinian cinema have been published in both local and international newspapers. She lives in Palestine.
Najwa Najjar -- Short film, Arabic (Palestine/Israel: 2009)
