A different view of Palestine
This year’s Arabian Film Days gives you a special section on Palestine. Through the four films that we are screening, we give you an untraditional account of the conflict and everyday life in the occupied territories. From the drama thriller Omar, by way of a Palestinian village and an Israeli settlement in the documentary Thank God It’s Friday, to Zaytoun, an Israeli produced road movie from a Palestinian refugee camp during the Lebanese civil war. And finally, New York based Ghazi Albuliwi’s silly romantic comedy Peace After Marriage.
Four different directors
This year’s special section gives you an untraditional look on Palestine. From dead serious Omar to hilarious Peace After Marriage, this selection of films will hopefully challenge your take on the Israel-Palestine conflict.
We present four directors. Perhaps due to their different backgrounds, they have different views of the conflict. Omar’s director Hany Abu-Assad, best known for Paradise Now (2005) and our special guest for this year’s festival, is a Palestinian who grew up in Nazareth. Zaytoun’s director Eran Riklis is an Israeli who defines himself as pro-Palestinian. Thank God It’s Friday is directed by Belgian Jan Beddegenoodts, while the comedy Peace After Marriage is made by Ghazi Albuliwi, born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Jordan and grown up in New York.
Palestinian village, Israeli settlement
In the documentary Thank God It’s Friday, we meet the locals of the village Nabi Saleh in the West Bank. Every Friday they demonstrate against the Israelis ever-increasing confiscation of their land. Next to the village is the Israeli settlement Halamish. Here, the people are living a completely different life – especially on Fridays. While their Palestinian neighbours are protesting, the Israelis are swimming in the public pool and preparing for Sabbath.
The documentary is unique because of director Beddegenoodts’ unique ability to make people reflect upon their life, and tell us about the absurdity of the situation that they are in.
Road movie from the Lebanese civil war
Zaytoun takes place in 1982 in Beirut, during the Lebanese civil war. The plot takes place in a Palestinian refugee camp, but takes us down south towards Israel.
The film depicts a friendship between a young Palestinian boy and an Israeli soldier – a relationship that has provoked a lot of viewers. Zaytoun is an excellent road movie about friends, enemies and what it takes to be a human being.
Dark thriller from the West Bank
Academy Award nominated Hany Abu-Assad is this year’s festival’s special guest. He is previously best known for the film Paradise Now, which was also nominated for an Oscar and screened in the prestigious Un certain regard programme in Cannes in 2006. Omar is a darker film than Abu-Assads earlier works. It is a thriller about violence, friendship and occupation on the West Bank.
Omar and his friends Tariq and Amjad attack a checkpoint and kill an Israeli soldier. Omar is arrested, put to the test, and forced to make some impossible choices. If he does not turn in his friend Tariq to the Israeli authorities, they will make his and his love Nadia’s lives miserable.
Omar is an intense thriller, but behind it you’ll find a psychological drama which is worthy of a master director. Hany Abu-Assad never fails when it comes to his depiction of characters. In this film, you will not find the simple heroes or bad guys, but complex characters caught in dire straits under occupation in the West Bank.
Stand-up comedy in Peace After Marriage
After all this seriousness you might feel the need for some laughter. Peace After Marriage is a Palestinian-American version of “The 40 Year Old Virgin”. Thirty year old Arafat still lives with his mom and dad in Brooklyn, nursing his porn addiction and dreaming about getting laid.
After he joins an organisation for sex addicts, Arafat is offered a green card marriage with a young woman. The bride-to-be turns out to be Israeli, which leads to a great deal of absurd consequences, with angry, religious men and shocked parents as main ingredients. This is a pure side-splitting comedy, not politically correct in any sense.
We can’t promise peace in Palestine and Israel, but we can offer you exciting, touching, funny and informative film experiences from a region that is regrettably all too seldom shown in Norwegian cinemas. Hopefully you will also get some new perspectives to bring to your lunch hour Palestine debates.
All of these films can be viewed during Arabian Film Days, which is held at Cinema Victoria 4th-6th of April. Tickets can be purchased from Oslo Kino.
The screening of Omar and invite of Hany Abu-Assad is a collaboration between Oslo Palestine Film Festival (OPFF), Transnational Arts Production (TRAP) and Arabian Film Days.