Film / News
Bristol Palestine Film Festival announced
Running from December 3-16, the fourth annual Bristol Palestine Film Festival (BPFF) boasts many a ground-breaking documentary, plus a couple of well-received dramas, with plenty of film-maker Q&As. Screenings take place at the Cube, Watershed and Arts Café on Stokes Croft. The BPFF is also one of the first events to make use of the new Easton Community Cinema.
The festival kicks off in earnest at the Watershed on Dec 5 with a timely focus on Gaza, featuring Nahed Awwad’s 2012 documentary Gaza Calling and Wael Alsousi’s fascinating historical short film about Gaza in the 1920s.
Other documentary highlights include Duma, which is one of the first films ever to tackle the issue of sexual abuse in Palestinian society; Shebabs of Yarmouk, charting the plight of a group of teenage Palestinians in a Syrian refugee camp; and Leila Sansour’s acclaimed portrait of her home town under occupation, Open Bethlehem.
It’s not all bleak. Sandra Madi’s Saken explores the remarkable bond that has developed between paralysed Palestinian freedom fighter Ibrahim Salameh and his Egyptian carer Walid. Fire Lines records a rare collaboration across enemy lines when the Palestinian Civil Defence joined forces with Israeli firefighters to tackle a deadly forest fire in Mount Carmel, near Haifa.
On the drama front, Hany Abu-Assad’s Omar is the story of a young Palestinian man who’s forced to become an informant for the Israeli military. It was nominated for an Oscar this year in the Best Foreign Language Film category. Salt of This Sea is the first Palestinian dramatic feature to be directed by a woman. Poet, director and activist Annemarie Jacir’s film charts the journey of a Brooklyn-born working class Palestinian woman who travels to Ramallah to reclaim her grandfather’s savings, which were frozen when he was exiled in 1948.
See the What’s On section for full listings of all screenings with trailers where available. For more on the festival, visit the official website
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