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)
A look at the intense traditional relationship between Palestinian women and their ancestral olive trees. Israeli occupation forces uproot the trees and destroy Palestinian farm and. How do women defend these ancient trees?
Liana Badr was born in 1950 in Jerusalem to a nationalist family, and was raised in Jericho. She obtained a BA in philosophy and psychology from the Beirut Arab University. After the 1982 Palestinian exodus from Lebanon, she lived in Damascus, Tunis, Amman, and returned to Palestine in 1994.
Liana Badr -- 37' (Palestine: 2000)
Acclaimed director Michel Khleifi's story of a Palestinian film-maker 'M' living in Europe, who returns home to Ramallah to film witness accounts of the 1948 Nakba - not only explores the events of that tumultuous era, but places them in context with the uncertainty and tension of present-day Palestine. Over the course of a single day and night, M's solipsistic existence is shaken when his nephew kills a man in Nazareth, placing the entire family at risk of reprisals. This masterful feature - a quietly witty, complex and occasionally surreal depiction of an exile's relationship with Palestine - marks a new direction in Khleifi's work.
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 Khelifi -- 85’, Arabic (Palestine/UK/Belgium/UAE: 2009)
