In the appealing, naturalistic drama “Alam,” a middle-class Arab teen living in a village in the Galilee undergoes a political awakening catalyzed by a pretty, outspoken girl from his high school class. Just like the protagonist, the audience, too, receives a provocative civics lesson on the symbolism — and power — of flags and what constitutes resistance. This intelligent, sensitive treatment of the rarely seen, everyday lives of young Palestinian citizens of Israel marks tyro feature writer-director Firas Khoury as a talent to watch, as well as a solid acquisition for Film Movement, the North American distributor. “The film. ”Alam” nabbed three prizes, including best film and audience award, at the Cairo Film Festival.
The story unfolds through the eyes of watchful, artistically-inclined Tamer, a high school senior nearing his matriculation exams. Like his friends, loudmouth Shekel (Mohammad Karaki) and electronic games nerd Rida (Ahmad Zaghmouri), Tamer shares the concerns of a typical male slacker: girls,...
The story unfolds through the eyes of watchful, artistically-inclined Tamer, a high school senior nearing his matriculation exams. Like his friends, loudmouth Shekel (Mohammad Karaki) and electronic games nerd Rida (Ahmad Zaghmouri), Tamer shares the concerns of a typical male slacker: girls,...
- 11/23/2022
- by Alissa Simon
- Variety Film + TV
The biggest problem filmmakers who shoot comedies face is that it is quite difficult to retain the hilarity and keep the audience laughing for the duration of a feature. The solution most find is to switch to drama at some point, with the movies quite frequently ending up as such despite their initial premises. Maha Haj, however, manages to both retain the comedy until the end, and to transition smoothly towards drama after a point in impressive fashion, through a great script that won the best screenplay prize at Cannes (Un Certain Regard) in 2022.
Mediterranean Fever screened at Warsaw Film Festival
40+ aspiring writer Waleed’s life is in shambles. He cannot finish his novel, no matter what he does, and his chronic depression is making things difficult for both him and his family, including his wife, teenage daughter and younger son. His wife wants one more child but he cannot even hear about it,...
Mediterranean Fever screened at Warsaw Film Festival
40+ aspiring writer Waleed’s life is in shambles. He cannot finish his novel, no matter what he does, and his chronic depression is making things difficult for both him and his family, including his wife, teenage daughter and younger son. His wife wants one more child but he cannot even hear about it,...
- 10/31/2022
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
It is the director’s second time in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard selection.
Screen can reveal the first trailer for Palestinian director Maha Haj’s second film Mediterranean Fever ahead of its world premiere in Cannes Un Certain Regard.
The drama revolves around an aspiring but depressed writer living in Hafia who befriends his small-time crook neighbour in the hope he will help him with a sinister scheme. Amer Hlehel and Ashraf Farah lead the cast.
Haj’s debut feature Personal Affairs also world premiered in Un Certain Regard in 2016.
Producers are Germany’s Pallas Film, France’s Still Moving,...
Screen can reveal the first trailer for Palestinian director Maha Haj’s second film Mediterranean Fever ahead of its world premiere in Cannes Un Certain Regard.
The drama revolves around an aspiring but depressed writer living in Hafia who befriends his small-time crook neighbour in the hope he will help him with a sinister scheme. Amer Hlehel and Ashraf Farah lead the cast.
Haj’s debut feature Personal Affairs also world premiered in Un Certain Regard in 2016.
Producers are Germany’s Pallas Film, France’s Still Moving,...
- 5/17/2022
- by Ellie Calnan
- ScreenDaily
Haj’s first film ’Personal Affairs’ also screened in Cannes Un Certain Regard in 2016.
Paris-based sales company Luxbox has boarded sales on Palestinian director Maha Haj’s second film Mediterranean Fever, which was announced as a fresh addition to Cannes Un Certain Regard section on Thursday (April 21).
At the same time, Dulac Distribution has also announced its acquisition of French rights for the film.
Haj’s debut feature Personal Affairs also world premiered in Un Certain Regard in 2016.
The new drama revolves around an aspiring but depressed writer living in Haifa who befriends his small-time crook neighbour in the hope...
Paris-based sales company Luxbox has boarded sales on Palestinian director Maha Haj’s second film Mediterranean Fever, which was announced as a fresh addition to Cannes Un Certain Regard section on Thursday (April 21).
At the same time, Dulac Distribution has also announced its acquisition of French rights for the film.
Haj’s debut feature Personal Affairs also world premiered in Un Certain Regard in 2016.
The new drama revolves around an aspiring but depressed writer living in Haifa who befriends his small-time crook neighbour in the hope...
- 4/22/2022
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
Gloom, deployed as a storytelling tactic, can exert a strange, unsettling pull when it’s as capably and beautifully conveyed as in Syrian director Ameer Fakher Eldin’s “The Stranger,” recently announced as Palestine’s international Oscar entry. A granular depiction of oppression as a kind of inescapable inheritance handed down from father to son, with mothers and daughters its peripheral, persevering survivors, .
But it is also attuned to the bleak grandeur of the landscapes in this cinematically little-seen region, and its rich, painterly images, appropriately hemmed into boxy Academy ratio, should make “The Stranger” as much a calling card for its cinematographer, Niklas Lindschau, as for Eldin. If not more so: Whenever Eldin’s screenplay gets too ponderous, when the pacing lags or the storytelling withholds too much, there is always a surprising composition to pin our attention. An elderly woman folding linen is briefly a Vermeer. A far-off mountainside in fall,...
But it is also attuned to the bleak grandeur of the landscapes in this cinematically little-seen region, and its rich, painterly images, appropriately hemmed into boxy Academy ratio, should make “The Stranger” as much a calling card for its cinematographer, Niklas Lindschau, as for Eldin. If not more so: Whenever Eldin’s screenplay gets too ponderous, when the pacing lags or the storytelling withholds too much, there is always a surprising composition to pin our attention. An elderly woman folding linen is briefly a Vermeer. A far-off mountainside in fall,...
- 11/30/2021
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
"Our spy has a problem. Duty is more important than love." Cohen Media Group has debuted an official Us trailer for an indie from Palestine / Israeli titled Tel Aviv on Fire, the latest film from filmmaker Sameh Zoabi (Under the Same Sun). This premiered at the Venice Film Festival last fall, before going on a global tour to other fests including Tiff & Rotterdam. The comedy is about a young Palestinian man who becomes a writer on a popular soap opera in Tel Aviv. His creative career catches fire, until the check point guard and the show's financial backers disagree on how the soap opera should end. Starring Kais Nashif as Salam, along with Lubna Azabal, Yaniv Biton, Nadim Sawalha, Maïsa Abd Elhadi, Salim Daw, Yousef Sweid, Amer Hlehel, Ashraf Farah, and Laëtitia Eïdo. It seems quite clever and bold - worth a watch. Here's the official Us trailer (+ poster) for...
- 7/7/2019
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
There's always the temptation to stay inside during the winter, made even more compelling by the wide array of films you can watch at home. But that would be ignoring the 89 reasons why the only place more inviting than a couch near the fireplace is a seat at your local arthouse where the options range from the ancient Roman war epic "The Eagle" with Channing Tatum and Jamie Bell to the fantastical Palme d'Or-winning elegy "Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives" from Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Many awards contenders will expand across the country while those sick of such serious fare can fall back on revenge-themed thrillers with Jason Statham, Nicolas Cage or the deadly Korean twosome of "The Housemaid" and "I Saw the Devil," the action stylings of Donnie Yen ("IP Man 2") and Tony Jaa ("Ong Bak 3"), or the comedies of John C. Reilly and Ed Helms ("Cedar Rapids...
- 1/11/2011
- by Stephen Saito
- ifc.com
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