films by hany abu-assad
I ended up half-watching a rerun of the Golden Globes the other day (I was line-editing some lengthy book chapters, and needed ambient noise in the background) and got to watch Hany Abu-Assad's win for Paradise Now, and hear his acceptance speech--"a recognition that the Palestinians deserve their liberty and equality unconditionally." Only a few years ago, Elia Suleiman's brilliant Divine Intervention was not allowed to compete for a best foreign film Oscar on the grounds that Palestine didn't count as a country (this year, Paradise Now has been accepted as a Palestinian entry). So to hear "Paradise Now, Palestine" read aloud as the winner was moving. There's a great interview with Abu-Assad in the Guardian's film section.
I haven't yet seen Paradise Now (I tried to attend its Turkish premiere at the FilmEkimi festival, but it was sold out), but I hope to find a copy soon. I highly recommend Abu-Assad's last two films, Rana's Wedding and Ford Transit. Rana's Wedding (aka Jerusalem, Another Day/Al Quds Fee Yom Ahkar) is a a wry, funny little film, about a Palestinian woman in East Jerusalem whose father wants to marry her off, or bring her to Egypt with him. He gives Rana a deadline: choose one of three men he's picked out, or go back to Cairo with him--and so she sets off to find her lover Khalil, a theater director in Ramallah who's not on her father's list, and get hitched before the 4pm departure deadline. A host of barriers--checkpoints, bulldozers and bomb squads, the task of finding a white dress and a willing judge, and Rana's own uncertainties about her future with Khalil--complicate the journey. But the film ends on a bright, defiant note, with women dancing in rebellious celebration at a checkpoint, and Mahmoud Darwish's words etched across the sky above them. Rana is played by the excellent Clara Khoury, who's also the star of Eran Riklis' new film The Syrian Bride, and she's wonderful in the film. (I totally have a crush on her). The rest of the cast is also very good, especially Ismael Dabbag as Khalil's buddy Ramzi.
In the same year, Abu-Assad made another film, Ford Transit, a documentary whose making was intertwined with that of Rana's Wedding. Ford Transit is the make of white passenger van used as "service," or shared taxis, in Palestine. During the filming of Rana's Wedding, Abu-Assad's cast and crew depended on service taxis to get through checkpoints, and he decided to make a documentary about one service driver, Rajai, whose help saved the filming effort. Ford Transit follows Rajai and his passengers as they navigate the occupied West Bank and share their opinions on the political situation in Palestine, the challenges of everyday life under occupation, Rajai's side business in bootleg CDs, the intelligence quotient of of George W. Bush, the future of the Oslo accords, and other matters. The commentary is thought-provoking, occasionally poignant, and often darkly comic. Abu-Assad's quasi-documentary mixes "real" and "staged" events--sometimes we see and hear from the van's everyday passengers; sometimes the people who pop up in its seats are clearly not there by chance, although they're never identifed by name (the passengers include Hanan Ashrawi, the Israeli filmmaker B.Z. Goldberg, the mother of a suicide bomber who became well-known for her public statements, and a Canadian grad student, among others). Rajai's own particpation in the film is ambiguous--at some points he plays along for the camera, while at others, he becomes uncooperative (in one case, tearing off his microphone and stomping away). Here's a little story from the Village Voice about the making of Rana's Wedding and Ford Transit.
Rana's Wedding can be ordered on DVD from Arab Film Distribution, a wonderful small company that has made Middle Eastern cinema far more accessible to American audiences. To our luck, they happen to be based in Seattle, which means we get the benefit of the annual Seattle Arab and Iranian Film Festival, which is in its sixth year of screening films from & about the region to often-packed audiences here.
I haven't yet seen Paradise Now (I tried to attend its Turkish premiere at the FilmEkimi festival, but it was sold out), but I hope to find a copy soon. I highly recommend Abu-Assad's last two films, Rana's Wedding and Ford Transit. Rana's Wedding (aka Jerusalem, Another Day/Al Quds Fee Yom Ahkar) is a a wry, funny little film, about a Palestinian woman in East Jerusalem whose father wants to marry her off, or bring her to Egypt with him. He gives Rana a deadline: choose one of three men he's picked out, or go back to Cairo with him--and so she sets off to find her lover Khalil, a theater director in Ramallah who's not on her father's list, and get hitched before the 4pm departure deadline. A host of barriers--checkpoints, bulldozers and bomb squads, the task of finding a white dress and a willing judge, and Rana's own uncertainties about her future with Khalil--complicate the journey. But the film ends on a bright, defiant note, with women dancing in rebellious celebration at a checkpoint, and Mahmoud Darwish's words etched across the sky above them. Rana is played by the excellent Clara Khoury, who's also the star of Eran Riklis' new film The Syrian Bride, and she's wonderful in the film. (I totally have a crush on her). The rest of the cast is also very good, especially Ismael Dabbag as Khalil's buddy Ramzi.
In the same year, Abu-Assad made another film, Ford Transit, a documentary whose making was intertwined with that of Rana's Wedding. Ford Transit is the make of white passenger van used as "service," or shared taxis, in Palestine. During the filming of Rana's Wedding, Abu-Assad's cast and crew depended on service taxis to get through checkpoints, and he decided to make a documentary about one service driver, Rajai, whose help saved the filming effort. Ford Transit follows Rajai and his passengers as they navigate the occupied West Bank and share their opinions on the political situation in Palestine, the challenges of everyday life under occupation, Rajai's side business in bootleg CDs, the intelligence quotient of of George W. Bush, the future of the Oslo accords, and other matters. The commentary is thought-provoking, occasionally poignant, and often darkly comic. Abu-Assad's quasi-documentary mixes "real" and "staged" events--sometimes we see and hear from the van's everyday passengers; sometimes the people who pop up in its seats are clearly not there by chance, although they're never identifed by name (the passengers include Hanan Ashrawi, the Israeli filmmaker B.Z. Goldberg, the mother of a suicide bomber who became well-known for her public statements, and a Canadian grad student, among others). Rajai's own particpation in the film is ambiguous--at some points he plays along for the camera, while at others, he becomes uncooperative (in one case, tearing off his microphone and stomping away). Here's a little story from the Village Voice about the making of Rana's Wedding and Ford Transit.
Rana's Wedding can be ordered on DVD from Arab Film Distribution, a wonderful small company that has made Middle Eastern cinema far more accessible to American audiences. To our luck, they happen to be based in Seattle, which means we get the benefit of the annual Seattle Arab and Iranian Film Festival, which is in its sixth year of screening films from & about the region to often-packed audiences here.
posted by kitabet at 12:08 AM
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