Cinema of Palestine

Palestinian cinema is relatively young in comparison to Arab cinema as a whole, many Palestinian movies are made with European and Israeli funding and support. Palestinian movies are not exclusively produced in Arabic and some are made in English, French and Hebrew.

History

The first period: The beginning, 1935â€"48

The first Palestinian film to be made is generally believed to be a documentary on King Ibn Saud of Saudi ArabiaÂ´s visit in 1935 to Palestine, made by Ibrahim Hassan Sirhan, based in Jaffa(also spelled Ibrahim Hasan Serhan.) Sirhan followed the King and around Palestine, "from Lod to Jaffa and from Jaffa to Tel Aviv". The result was a silent movie that was presented at the Nabi Rubin festivals. Following this documentary, Sirhan joined Jamal al-Asphar to produce a 45-minute film called The Realized Dreams, aiming to "promote the orphansÂ´cause". Sirhan and al-Asphar also produced a documentary about Ahmad Hilmi Pasha, a member of the Higher Arab Commission. In 1945 Sirhan established the "Arab Film Company" production studio together with Ahmad Hilmi al-Kilani. The company launched the feature film Holiday Eve, which was followed by preparations for the next film A Storm at Home. The films themselves were lost in 1948, when Sirhan had to flee Jaffa after the town was bombarded.

The second period: The epoch of silence, 1948â€"67

The 1948 Palestinian exodus (known in Arabic as the Nakba) had a devastating effect on the Palestinian society, including its nascent film industry. Cinematic endeavours, requiring infrastructure, professional crews, and finance, nearly ceased for two decades. Individual Palestinian participated in the film-production of neighbouring countries. It is reported that Sirhan was involved with the production of the first Jordanian feature film, The Struggle in Jarash, (1957), and another Palestinian, Abdallah KaÂ´wash, directed the second Jordanian feature film, My Homeland, My Love, in 1964.

The third period: Cinema in exile, 1968â€"82

After 1967 Palestinian cinema was founded under the auspices of the PLO, funded by Fatah and other Palestinian organisations like PFLP and DFLP. More than 60 films were made in this period, mostly documentaries. The first film festival dedicated to Palestinian films was held in Baghdad in 1973, and Baghdad also hosted the next two Palestinian film festivals, in 1976 and 1980. Mustafa Abu Ali was one of the early Palestinian film directors, and he helped found the Palestinian Cinema Association in Beirut in 1973. Only one dramatic movie was made during the period, namely The return to Haifa in 1982, an adaptation of a short novel by Ghassan Kanafani.

The film archives disappearance, 1982

The different organisations set up archives for Palestinian films. The largest such archive was run by PLO's Film Foundation/Palestinian Film Unit. In 1982, when the PLO was forced out of Beirut, the archive was in storage (in the Red Crescenty Hospital), from where it "disappeared" under circumstances which are still unclear.

The fourth period: The return home, from 1980 to the present

The 1996 drama/comedy Chronicle of a Disappearance received international critical acclaim, and it became the first Palestinian movie to receive national release in the United States. A break-out film for its genre, it won a "New Director's Prize" at the Seattle International Film Festival and a "Luigi De Laurentiis Award" at the Venice Film Festival. Notable film directors in this period are especially:

Michel Khleifi
Rashid Masharawi
Ali Nassar
Elia Suleiman

An international effort was launched in 2008 to reopen Cinema Jenin, a cinema located in the Jenin Refugee Camp.

In 2008, three Palestinian feature films and an estimated eight shorts were completed, more than ever before.

In 2010, Hamas, the governing authority in the Gaza Strip, announced the completion of a new film. Titled The Great Liberation, the film depicts the destruction of Israel by Palestinians.

Currently in the Gaza Strip, all film projects must be approved by Hamas' Culture Ministry before they can be screened in public. Independent filmmakers have claimed that the Culture Ministry cracks down on content not conforming to Hamas edicts. In a notable 2010 case, Hamas banned the short film Something Sweet, directed by Khalil al-Muzzayen, which was submitted at the Cannes Film Festival. Hamas banned it from being shown locally due to a four-second scene where a woman is shown with her hair uncovered. In 2011, a film festival hosted by the Gaza Women's Affairs Center which included documentaries and fictional pieces on women's issues, but the Culture Ministry censored numerous scenes. One film had to remove a scene where a woman lowered one shoulder of her dress, and another had to remove a scene of a man swearing.

Notable directors

Yahya Barakat
Hany Abu-Assad
Scandar Copti
Mustafa Abu Ali
Mohammed Bakri
Tarek Al Eryan
Annemarie Jacir
Michel Khleifi
Rashid Masharawi
Saleem Dabbour
Mai Masri
Montaser Marai
Rosalind Nashashibi
Ali Nassar
Mohammad Al-Sawalma
Hazim Bitar
Elia Suleiman
Leila Sansour
Refat Adi
Sameh Zoabi
Tawfik Abu Wael
Ameen Nayfeh
Mohammad Shihadeh Hmedat

Notable films

They Don't Exist[1]
Wedding in Galilee (1987) (International Critics Prize, Cannes),
Tale of the Three Jewels (1994)
Chronicle of a Disappearance (1996) (â€œLuigi De Laurentiisâ€ Award for a Debut Film at the 1996 Venice Film Festival)
Divine Intervention (2002).
Olive Harvest, The (2003)
Arna's Children (2003)
Jeremy Hardy vs. the Israeli Army (2004)
Women in Struggle (2004)
Waiting (2005)
Paradise Now (2006) (Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film winner)
The Color of Olives (2006)
Iron Wall (2006)
Goal Dreams (2006)
First Picture (2006)
Maria's Grotto (2007) (Silver Muhr Award, Dubai International Film Festival)
Kaffa! (2007) (Silver Award for Short Film, Cairo International TV and Media Festival)(Gold Award for Best Script, Tunis International TV and Media Festival)
Salt of this Sea (2008)
Taste the Revolution (2008)
The View (2008) (Best Short Film ($75,000), Middle East International Film Festival)
Till When? (2008) (Officially selected in Cergy Pontoise Film Festival in Paris,Honorable Mention in Digicon 6 Festival in Tokyo)
Spider Web (2009)
Beyond the Sun(2010) (Audience Choice, Bagdad International Film Festival)
cup final (1991) takes place during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
The Uppercut (2012) A Short Documentary Shot in Jordan Telling a Story of a Slum Kickboxing Club

Notable film festivals

Houston Palestine Film Festival
Toronto Palestine Film Festival
Boston Palestine Film Festival
Chicago Palestine Film Festival
Ann Arbor Palestine Film Festival
DC Palestinian Film and Arts Festival
London Palestine Film Festival
Al-Kasaba International Film Festival [2], in Ramallah, West Bank
Muestra de Cine Palestino de Madrid (Madrid Palestine Film Festival)

References

External links

Dreams of a Nation, an independent project founded to provide resources and information on Palestinian cinema. Based at Columbia University, USA.
Palestinian Film: News and Reviews at IMEU.net
Review of a film that explores the story of the lost archives of the PLO film unit
History and Trends in Palestinian Filmmaking

Literature

Dabashi, Hamid, and Said, Edward (preface) (2006): Dreams Of A Nation: On Palestinian Cinema, Verso Books, London, United Kingdom, ISBN 1-84467-088-0
Gertz, Nurith; Khleifi, George (2008): Palestinian Cinema: Landscape, Trauma, and Memory, Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-22007-6

Cinema of Palestine

Saturday, April 11, 2015