proudly present Middle East Movie Nights – Palestine This is the second serving this year of the Middle East Movie Nights; a collaborative venture between the NUS Middle East Institute and The Arts house which is on its third year now. The June screenings features a double bill of movies in honour of Palestine: Divine Intervention and Private; two different cinematic portrayal of the occupied territories.

DIVINE INTERVENTION – Theatrical Trailer

Director & Writer : Elia Suleiman | Cast: Elia Suleiman, Manal Khader and George Ibrahim | 2002 |Palestine | 90 min | Type of film: Drama/ Romance/ Comedy | Arabic and Hebrewwith English Subtitles | Rating M18 Divine Intervention, or Yadon Ilaheyya, may be described as a surreal comedy. The film consists largely of a series of brief interconnected vignettes, but, for the most part, records a day in the life of a Palestinian living in Nazareth, whose girlfriend lives several checkpoints away in the West Bank city of Ramallah. One lyrical section features a beautiful sunglasses-clad Palestinian woman (played by Manal Khader) whose passing by not only distracts all eyes, but whose gaze causes Israeli military checkpoint towers to crumble. The director features prominently as the film’s silent, expressionless protagonist in aniconic and powerfully moving performance has been compared to the work of Buster Keaton, Jim Jarmusch and Jacques Tati. The film is noted for its minimal use of dialogue, its slow pace and repetition in behavior by its characters. The film, screened at the 2002 Cannes on May 12, was awarded the Jury Prize and the FIPRESCI Prize for “its sensitive, amusing and innovative vision of a complex and topical situation and the tragic consequences that result from it”. “One of the top ten films of the year!” Time Magazine “(The) film achieves a level of artistry and firm control over a clear, concise vision.” Hollywood Reporter

Director : Saverio Costanzo | Cast: Mohammad Bakri, Lior Miller, Areen Omari, Tomer Ruso, Hend Ayoub | 2005 | Palestine | 90mins | Drama | Arabic, English and Hebrew with English subtitles | Rating: TBA Mohammad, his wife and their five children live in a large, isolated house located halfway between a Palestinian village and an Israeli settlement. The house, in the crossfire of the two sides, is a strategic lookout point that the Israeli army decides to seize,confining the family to a few downstairs rooms in daytime and a single room at night. Mohammad refuses to leave this home and, reinforced by his principles against violence, decides to find a way to keep his family together in the house until the Israeli soldiers move on. (Partly based on a true story.) “…Captures (war’s) harrowing complexities with unerring accuracy.” Toronto International Film Festival “Powerful…emotionally gripping drama.” Variety