The seat Ramallah Cultural Palace, on whose premises is the grave of Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, was overcrowded on September 9. Over people packed the cinema hall to watch Najwa Najjar's premiere of her second long feature film, Eyes of a Thief.
The Palestinian filmmaker's film follows her successful Pomegranates and Myrrh, which opened the Dubai Film Festival in and has racked up a huge number of awards.
The name of the film (in Arabic Eun al haramieh) refers to a rather desolate location on the valley between Nablus and Ramallah.
The location used to witness robberies, which made the British mandatory government build a police station to protect travellers.
The British barracks that still stand in the area have long been abandoned, but the Israelis used the location to set up a permanent checkpoint.
In , at the height of the second Intifada, a lone Palestinian sniper gunned down 10 Israelis including seven soldiers.
Israeli experts at one time thought the sniper might be an older Palestinian who had participated in World War II, or a fighter from the Balkans who infiltrated the occupied territories or possibly an IRA connection to the PLO.
The I
Pomegranates and Myrrh
Dubai International Film Festival, (World Premiere)
Sundance International Film Festival, (International Premiere)
International Film Festival Rotterdam,
Göteborg International Film Festival,
Fribourg International Film Festival,
Galway Film Festival,
Edinburgh Film Festival,
Durban Film Festival,
Montréal Film Festival,
Locarno Film Festival,
Espoo Film Festival,
Fukuoka International Film Festival,
Palestine Film Festival,
Warsaw Film Festival,
Doha Tribeca Film Festival, (Best Arab Film Audience Award)
Cairo International Film Festival,
Leeds International Film Festival,
Amal Arab European Film Festival , (Grand Prix Award)
Amiens International Film Festival,
Dubai International Film Festival,
Lyon Fenêtres sur le cinéma du Sud,
Aichi International Women's Film Festival,
Festival International de Cinéma d’Auteur de Rabat, (Youssef Chahine Grand Prix de Cinema)
On Palestinian Cinema: An Interview with Film Director Najwa Najjar
Najwa Najjar is a Palestinian filmmaker based in the Palestinian Occupied Territories. She has worked in both documentary and fiction. Her debut film was the feature Pomegranates and Myrrh (), and her second feature is. Eyes of a Thief (). The latter was selected as the Palestinian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards. This interview with Najjar was conducted following the recent release of Eyes of a Thief in the United States.
Isis Nusair (IN): How did you start making movies?
Najwa Najjar (NN): Cinema has always been part of my life in different ways. I was always an avid reader, lived in a house with music, storytelling and art—and when I was around ten years old my father gave me his camera and taught me how to frame, and capture images. At an older age during my studies in the United States I was always irritated with the way Arabs and/or Palestinians were portrayed in the media and everywhere—so instead of just being annoyed, I decided to do something about it. That`s when I did my graduate work in cinema.
IN: What did you want to communicate through the
Well known Palestinian filmmaker, Najwa Najjar, is an optimist at heart. Despite the bleak prospects of a solution that would guarantee the rights of the Palestinian people, Najjar is not giving up. She has made it her mission to use the power of film to expose the gross injustice of the Israeli occupation and its effect on the lives of ordinary Palestinians. In , she wrote and directed her debut feature film, Pomegranates and Myrhh, which won critical acclaim and 10 international awards, and this year was nominated to the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. eniGma’s Chairman, Samia Farid Shihata, got the chance to sit down with the Palestinian filmmaker to learn more about her remarkable journey in filmmaking. Here are some excerpts from the fascinating conversation. Can you give our readers a brief overview of your personal background and how you got into filmmaking? Alberta arthurs biography of rory gilmore Rory reads a lot of translated literary works (particularly Russian literature), and so should we! Below are 10 literary works I recommend that originated in languages other than English. A Missing: alberta arthurs. Purnima sadhvi biography of alberta Purnima sadhvi biography of abraham lincoln. Abraham Lincoln Facts about his life will include his childhood, family life, his early influences, marital life, and his career as a lawyer before his Missing: alberta. The life of admiral christopher columbus This revised edition (originally published in ) of the famous biography of Columbus by his son Ferdinand was published to coincide with the Columbus quincentenary . Roger jersey shore biography definition American reality star, Roger Mathews is a union trucker who rose to fame after his romantic relationship with Jersey Shore star Jenni Farley aka JWoww. • Roger Mathews is an American . Open autobiography andre agassi biografia Bracingly devoid of triumphalist homily, Andre Agassi’s is one of the most passionately anti-sports books ever written by a superstar athlete. Jasmine pilchard-gosnell pregnant PAUL Walker's girlfriend is "broken up" about the death of her partner of seven years who she started dating when she was 16 years old. Jasmine Pilchard-Gosnell, 23, is .
My mother was from Jaffa in Palestine, and my father was a journalist who lived in both Palestine and Jordan. I was raised in a home with lots of music, art, writing and culture. I went to high school in Europe and then went to California, where I earned a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Po
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