Miral opens this coming Friday in New York

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Soosan Khanoom
by Soosan Khanoom
24-Mar-2011
 


MIRAL: " I thought we are unheard as Palestinians and as Women "..... She then continues: " How can we ever have peace in the middle east if we do not hear both sides of the story. We have to bring the story to the front page. Something that I am trying to achieve by creating a bridge of understandings.

" It shouldn't be illegal to have empathy for the Palestinians Cause. This story is through the eye of a 16 year old Palestinian girl ". The producer, Schnabel, continues: " So I had to go to Israel to make it happen "..... Before this, Schnabel, had never met a Palestinian person. He knew Israel from the prayers he recited as a child ("Next year, in Israel"), and from a brief trip in 1987, just as the intifada began........

Schnabel also revealed that the project has relevance for his own family history, figuring that he was a pretty good person to tell the other side of the story, given his background, as an American Jewish person whose mother was president, in 1948, of the Brooklyn chapter of Hadassah the Women's Zionist Organisation of America.

"When I read the book I thought, why are these people villainized? I need to go there, and I need to see for myself what's happening," he said. "And in the process of doing all that, I felt like my mother's wish—that I should go to Israel and see what it was—would be realized". 

Book Review:   After the 1948 war, Hind Husseini set up an orphanage and boarding school in Jerusalem for homeless Palestinian girls. In this gripping historical novel based on Husseinis efforts, Palestinian-born Italian journalist Jebreal focuses on the girls Hind saves, including Miral, and the young men and adults they know. As Miral grows up, she teaches in desperate refugee camps in the West Bank, witnesses Israeli terror (including soldiers breaking the arms of children who throw stones), joins young activists in the Occupied Territories, and falls in love. She also befriends a young Jewish peace activist. The individual viewpoints are the strength of the story, which presents the family and political history from many sides, including Palestinian girls oppressed by Arab regimes and at home, as well as by the Israeli Occupation. There is loathing for collaborators. But are peace negotiations betrayal? After her friend is shot dead in a demonstration, should Miral throw a Molotov cocktail? There are few novels that show the personal conflict in such depth and complexity. With a movie forthcoming, this will spark passionate discussion. 

 

 The Movie opens this coming Friday in New York


Exclusive Clip: ‘Miral’

 

"This school is the difference between you and the children in the refugee camp "


//www.miralmovie.com/

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=ck96h97y9Vs 

 

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Soosan Khanoom

Thank you to both of you for your replies

by Soosan Khanoom on

It is a great documentary with a very strong message for peace ...... it is a must see ......... 

SCHNABEL: That’s the platform for dialogue for the whole world. It’s the place where conflicts are sorted out, and it’s where Israel was born in 1948. There is a global non-violent revolution going on in the Middle East, with dictators falling everywhere because people want to be free. It’s true not only in countries that have been in the news, but also in Israel. I think a non-violent Democratic revolution is coming. Young people are tired of their leaders, tired of Hamas, tired of leaders who have been representing the Palestinians. Israelis are tired, and many Jewish people are tired of the leaders leading that country. We need a statesman over there, not a politician. Netanyahu isn’t going to solve anything when he exacerbates things by saying they’re going to build more settlements because people are killed.

He then continues :

what the hell is going on? We can’t let the Jewish lobby create this blind, blanket support of something that’s inhumane. We’re not free, as long as that continues. My mother was the head of Hadassah, and I believe in the Jewish homeland as a democratic place, but for everyone who lives there. You shouldn’t have to be Jewish to be free in Israel. The Palestinians are not our enemies. The whole civil society is held hostage by fanatics on both sides. Young people, Israelis and Palestinians, just want to be able to go to school and come home at the end of the day and not get blown up. There are a lot of young people who are soldiers and don’t want to be soldiers. Does anyone want to be a soldier? 

Here is the entire  interview ... Please check it out and make sure to read it .... thanks :)

//www.deadline.com/2011/03/qa-miral-director-julian-schnabel-on-the-politics-of-his-controversial-film/ 


vildemose

Excellent. Hope people make

by vildemose on

Excellent. Hope people make more and more of these documentaries.


Bavafa

On my list of can't-wait-to-watch

by Bavafa on

Only I wish I could see it in the movie theater.

Mehrdad