Palestinian Film Festival 2012: Preview

Some years ago a friend of Naser Shakhtour’s complained that all the news emanating from the Middle East was bad and rarely, if ever, were good news stories reported. That chance remark inspired Shakhtour to launch the Palestinian Film Festival dedicated to spreading awareness and understanding of the region’s culture, storytelling and contemporary issues.

The fourth edition kicks off in Sydney November 8 and expands for the first time to Perth and Brisbane. “This year we faced the choice between having a big Sydney festival or a small national festival and we opted for the latter,” he tells SBS Film.

It’s a labour of love for Naser and his team of volunteers who work on a shoestring budget, with sponsorship from four or five individuals plus audience development grants from Arts NSW.

Born in Bethlehem, he migrated to Australia 20-odd years ago and works in the telecommunications industry. The fest is staged by Cultural Media, a non-for-profit organisation dedicated to the promotion of Palestinian culture in Australia via events such as theatre productions including Taher Najib’s play In Spitting Distance, which played at the Sydney Opera House in 2008, and art exhibitions.

The festival aims to reach out to the broader community, including Jewish audiences, as well as appealing to people of Palestinian origin. “Lots of Jewish films and Palestinian films address the same issues,” he says.

The event has grown in scope since the inaugural edition in 2008 when three features and three documentaries were screened over two weekends in Sydney at the Palace Cinema in Norton Street, Leichhardt and the Sidetrack Shed Theatre in Marrickville. In year 2 the fest expanded to Melbourne and Adelaide, and last year it played in Melbourne and Sydney.

Only two or three films annually are produced in Palestine so Shakhtour has sourced some features and shorts from elsewhere in the Middle East and Europe. He doesn’t have the budget to travel to international festivals but keeps a close eye on the films selected for major fests such as Toronto, and remains in touch with contacts in Palestine.

None of the films in the program has an Australian distributor attached and Naser hopes at least some titles will be picked up for a commercial art house release. Securing films, he says, “took a lot of persuasion” with producers and distributors, adding, “We have worked hard and been lucky in the past in premiering films such as Pomegranates and Myrrh, Salt of This Sea and The Time That Remains, so we have built that credibility over the years.”

This year the theme is “Visit Palestine,” reflecting Shakhtour’s hope that the festival will help build trade, cultural, tourist and educational links between Australia and Palestine.

The opening night attraction is Man Without A Cell Phone (pictured), the debut feature of director Sameh Zoabi, which takes a light-hearted look at a young Palestinian from a Muslin family in Israel who argues with his conservative father and arouses the police’s suspicions due to his phone conversations with a girl from the Palestinian territory.

Norwegian actress-turned-director Vibeke Løkkeberg’s documentary Tears of Gaza follows three children and their experiences in the 2008-2009 bombing of Gaza. It was awarded the Grand Prix at the first ever film festival on the Gaza Strip in 2010. Naser says it’s a confronting anti-war film and will be listed as not suitable for children, rated 18-plus.

Swedish director Gabriella Bier’s Love During Wartime is a docudrama which focuses on Jewish dancer Jasmin Avissar and Muslim artist Osama Zatar, who marry but due to citizenship laws are not allowed to live together in Israel or the West Bank, and opt to move to Germany where they encounter prejudice.

Tawfiq Abu Wael’s Last Days in Jerusalem is a psychological drama about Nour and Iyad, a Palestinian couple living in Jerusalem who prepare to move to Paris. On the way to the airport, a news report of a terrible accident forces Iyad (Ali Badarni), a surgeon, to return to his hospital, while Nour (Lana Haj Yahia), a theatre actress, starts to question their move as well as their marriage.

Giacomo Durzi’s doco Number One on the List investigates the murder of Palestinian intellectual Wael Zuaiter, the first Palestine Liberation Organisation representative in Italy, by Israeli Mossad agents in Rome in 1972, featuring interviews with his family and friends.

Directed by Julia Bache and Rebekah Wingert, My Neighbourhood seeks to raise global awareness of the displacement of Palestinians from East Jerusalem as it follows teenager Mohammed El Kurd as half of his home is taken over by settlers and he’s assisted by a coalition of Israeli peace activists and Palestinian residents.

Among the shorts are First Lesson, the directorial debut of actress Areen Omari, who plays an actress who relocates to Paris in an attempt to escape the daily tension and stress of her Palestinian hometown; and Fix Me, which tracks director Raed Andoni as he searches for a cure for a chronic headache and uncovers the psychological effects of occupation in Ramallah.

Ihab Jadallah’s The Shooter uses pastiche and parody as it questions the staging of sensational news stories in Palestine. Andrew Kavanagh’s animated short Hasan Everywhere explores the brief but passionate friendship between Palestinian artist Hasan Hourani and Israeli writer Dorit Rabinyan during a freezing New York winter.

Ossama Bawardi’s Haneen is the chronicle of a woman in her mid-60s who lives alone in Jerusalem after becoming estranged from her son and husband and is befriended by Salem, a boy from the neighbourhood who steals oranges from her garden.

Next year Shakhtour aims to make the festival bigger still and to enlist the support of exhibitors as sponsors.

The 2012 Palestinian Film Festival runs in Sydney (8-11 November), Melbourne (16-18 November), Perth (23-25 November) and Brisbane (30 November- 2 December). See full schedule here.