With occasional reflection on the perpetual absurdity/intrigue of life and society in general.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Miral, by Julian Schanabel - Featured Film of Interest - Trailer






From Julian Schnabel, director of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Before Night Falls, and Basquiat, comes Miral, the visceral, first-person diary of a young girl growing up in East Jerusalem as she confronts the effects of occupation and war in every corner of her life. Shnabel pieces together momentary fragments of Miral's world - how she was formed, who influenced her, all that she experiences in her tumultuous early years - to create a raw, moving, poetic portrait of a woman whose small, personal story is inextricably woven into the bigger history unfolding all around her. For complete details, follow the Link.


SYNOPSIS
Jerusalem, 1948. On her way to work, Hind Husseini comes across 55 orphaned children. She takes them home to give them food and shelter. Within six months, 55 have grown to almost 2000, and the Dar Al-Tifel Institute is born. At the age of 7, Miral is sent to the Institute by her father following her mother’s death. Brought up behind the safety of the Institute’s walls, she is naïve to the troubles that surround her. Then, at the age of 17, she is assigned to teach at a refugee camp where she is awakened to the reality of her people’s struggle. When she falls for a political activist, Hani, she finds herself torn between the fight for the future of her people and Mama Hind’s belief that education is the road to peace.


Miral by Julian Schnabel - Usa, France, Italy, Israel, 112'
language: English, Hebrew, Arabic - s/t Italian/English
Freida Pinto, Hiam Abbass, Willem Dafoe, Yasmine Al Masri, Vanessa Redgrave



Links: 
Miral Official Site 
Venice Film Festival