A Wedding in Ramallah

 

ABOUT THE FILM

A Wedding in Ramallah begins in 2000, when Israeli-Palestinian relations seemed to be on the upswing. It shows us the arranged marriage of Bessam and Mariam; Bessam, forced to leave the country due to suspected militancy, lives in America while Mariam stays home and struggles to get her visa to join him. But the situation deteriorates as fighting resumes. Although she finally does get to America, it comes at an enormous cost. With no English and no Palestinian community, she must learn to live in urban isolation. Mariam goes crazy with boredom. A Wedding in Ramallah shows a way of life cruelly disrupted and is essential for putting a face on the current Middle East crisis.

 
 
 
Featured
Sherine Salama
Sherine Salama

Originally from Ramallah, Sherine Salama was born in Cairo and moved to Australia when she was three years old. In 1989, she worked as a freelance journalist in Cairo and from 1993 as an ABC reporter, receiving the United Nations Media Peace Prize for a report on the rape of Bosnian women.

Sherine Salama -- 90' (Palestine/Australia: 2002)

 

Adam & Eve

 

ABOUT THE FILM

A loose retelling of the biblical story in contemporary settings. "Caution: If you have not sinned in your lifetime you will not relate to this story..."

 
 
DOAN | Filmmakers 2
Izidore Musallam
Izidore Musallam

Izidore Musallam is a director and most recently produced the Sci Fi Pictures original film: Savage Planet. He was born in Haifa and graduated with a BFA in film production from York University in Toronto, Canada where he now lives and works.

 
 

Izidore Musallam -- 88’, English (Canada: 2003)
 

Al-mash'hd

 

ABOUT THE FILM

An Israeli sniper suffers mission drift while on a stakeout as a mysterious drama unfolds between a Palestinian man and woman.

 
 
DOAN | Filmmakers
Hazim Bitar
Hazim Bitar

Hazim Bitar is a Palestinian-Jordanian producer, writer, and director. He founded the Amman Filmmakers Cooperative, which serves as the launching pad for some of Jordan's leading independent filmmakers. Since its founding, the Amman Filmmakers Cooperative has provided cinema education to hundreds of Jordanians and Palestinians, mainly in disadvantaged areas.

 
 

Hazim Bitar -- 16’, Hebrew/English (Jordan/Palestine: 2008)

Ali & His Friends (Ali et ses amis)

 

About the film

Sobhi Al-Zobeidi presents a group of children from the Jalazone refugee camp, his home camp, as the heroes of this original documentary.

 
 
DOAN | Filmmakers
Sobhi Al-Zobeidi
Sobhi Al-Zobeidi

Sobhi al-Zobaidi is an independent Palestinian filmmaker, artist and scholar. He studied economics at Birzeit University and Cinema at NYU.

 
 

Sobhi Al-Zobeidi -- Documentary, 10' (Palestine: 1999)

Alsino and the Condor (Alsino y el Condor)

 

ABOUT THE FILM

A young peasant boy living in a Central American country governed by a repressive regime dreams of flying with Condors. After an injury, the boy joins with a guerrilla force to fight for liberation.

 
 
DOAN | Filmmakers 2
Miguel Littin
Miguel Littin

Born in 1942 in Palmilla, Chile to Palestinian parents, is a major Latin American director and screenwriter. Littin has had a long and distinguished career as a filmmaker and screenwriter in his home county and in Europe.

 
 

Miguel Littin -- 89’, Spanish (Nicaragua/Mexico: 1982)

Amreeka

 

ABOUT THE FILM

Amreeka chronicles the adventures of Muna, a single mother who leaves the West Bank with Fadi, her teenage son, with dreams of an exciting future in the promised land of small town Illinois.  In America, as her son navigates high school hallways the way he used to move through military checkpoints, the indomitable Muna scrambles together a new life cooking up falafel burgers as well as hamburgers at the local White Castle.

Told with heartfelt humor by writer-director Cherien Dabis in her feature film debut, Amreeka is a universal journey into the lives of a family of immigrants and first-generation teenagers caught between their heritage and the new world in which they now live and the bittersweet search for a place to call home.

Amreeka recalls Dabis’s family’s memories of their lives in rural America during the first Iraq War.  The film stars Haifa-trained actress Nisreen Faour as Muna, and Melkar Muallen plays her 16-year-old son, Fadi.  Also in the cast are Hiam Abbass, Alia Shawkat, Yussef Abu-Warda and Joseph Ziegler.  Written and directed by Cherien Dabis, Amreeka was produced by Christina Piovesan and Paul Barkin.  Alicia Sams, Dabis and Gregory Keever were executive producers; Liz Jarvis and Al-Zain Al-Sabah were co-producers.

 
 
DOAN | additional
DEBUT

National Geographic Entertainment will release Amreeka in September 2009.  Amreeka is a First Generation Films-Alcina Pictures-Buffalo Gal Pictures/Eagle Vision Media Group Production, presented by E1 Entertainment in association with Levantine Entertainment, Rotana Studios and Showtime Arabia.

Amreeka made its world premiere in dramatic competition at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, and played as Opening Night of New Directors/New Films, a co-presentation of The Museum of Modern Art and The Film Society of Lincoln Center.  Amreeka made its debut internationally in Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

DOAN | Filmmakers
Cherien Dabis
Cherien Dabis

Born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1976 to Palestinian Jordanian immigrants, Cherien Dabis is an award-winning feature filmmaker who received her M.F.A. in film from Columbia University. Her writing and directorial debut, Amreeka (2009), world-premiered at the Sundance Film Festival (2009).

 

Cherien Dabis -- 96’, Arabic/English (Canada/Kuwait/United States: 2009)

The Arab Dream (Al-Hilm al-’Arabi)

 

ABOUT THE FILM

Commissioned by ARTE network as part of a series of films for the end of the millenium, this film is a travelogue through Jerusalem, Nazareth and Ramallah. The film is a meditation on quotidian injustices, and a formulation of an aesthetic and creative response to them.

 
 
DOAN | Filmmakers 2
Elia Suleiman
Elia Suleiman

Born in 1960 in Nazareth, Elia Suleiman lived in New York from 1981 to 1993. While in the United States, he has directed his first two short films: Introduction to the End of an Argument and Hommage by Assassination, winning numerous awards.

 
 

Elia Sulieman -- 30' (Palestine/France: 1998)

Be Quiet

 

ABOUT THE FILM

The story of a young boy and his father on their journey home to the city of Nazareth. What should be a simple car trip is beset by politically charged tension and a militarized reality- each of which serves as a foil to enhance the struggle of a complacent father raising a strong willed son.

 
 
DOAN | Filmmakers 2
Sameh Zoabi
Sameh Zoabi

Sameh Zoabi was born and raised in Iksal, a Palestinian village near the city of Nazareth in 1975. In 1998, Zoabi graduated from Tel Aviv University with a dual degree in Film Studies and English Literature.

 
 

Sameh Zoabi -- 19’, Arabic/Hebrew with English Subtitles (France: 2005)