Films coming to Reel Palestine
Cinema Akil will host movie screenings as well as a vibrant market and exhibition
Reel Palestine, a festival celebrating Palestinian cinema
and culture, will return for its fifth edition this year at Cinema Akil from tomorrow until January 26. In addition to multiple film screenings across nine days, a vibrant Palestinian market will offer everything from crafts and traditional embroidery, to souvenirs and jarred foods. Not sure where to start? Here are films you don’t want to miss.
What Wala’a Wants (2018) – Documentary – 89 min
Tomorrow (7pm) | Jan 21 (9.30pm) | Jan 23 (7.30pm) Wala’a, raised in a West Bank refugee camp while her mother is in an Israeli prison, wants to join the Palestinian Security Forces. The film follows Wala’a aged 15 to 21. Q&A with executive producer to follow on opening night.
Wall (2017) – Animated Documentary – 82 min
Tomorrow (9pm) | Saturday (5pm) | Jan 25 (9pm) Two-time Oscar-nominated screenwriter David Hare (The
Hours, The Reader) writes and stars in this animated film, which examines the reality of the wall separating Israel and Palestine.
The Tower (2018) – Animation – 80 min
Saturday (3pm) | Jan 25 (5pm) Eleven-year-old Wardi lives in the refugee camp where she was born. Sidi, her greatgrandfather, was an early resident of the camp after fleeing his home in 1948. Sidi gives Wardi the key to his old Galilee house, and she worries he’s lost hope of going back. Naila and the Uprising (2017) –
Animated Documentary – 76 min
Saturday (7pm) | Jan 22 (9.30pm) | Jan 23 (7pm — the final screening will be at Warehouse 421, Abu Dhabi)
Naila and the Uprising chronicles the journey of Naila Ayesh after a nation-wide uprising breaks out in 1987. Naila moves in and out of Israeli prisons, distributing illegal leaflets by night and planning boycotts with her infant son strapped to her back.
The Judge (2017) – Documentary – 81 min
Saturday (8.30pm) | Jan 25 (3pm)
Judge Kholoud Al Faqih was laughed out of the chief justice’s office when she announced her desire to join the bench. Now, she’s the first woman to be appointed to a Shari’a court in the Middle East. White Oil (2014) – Documentary – 65 min Jan 20 (7.30pm) London-based filmmaker Judy Price looks into white oil, a raw resource that supports the Palestinian economy, and how it is expropriated for construction of illegal settlements in the West Bank, and claimed as an Israeli product during exports.
A Stone’s Throw From Prison (2016) – Documentary – 65 min
Jan 20 (9.30pm) | Jan 24 (7.30pm)
Rami, Ahmad and Mohammad are three out of thousands of children growing up in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, where they can be imprisoned and interrogated unexpectedly at any moment.
Ambulance (2016) – Documentary – 80 min
Jan 21 (7.30pm) | Jan 23 (9.30pm)
A first-person account of the war in July 2014, told through the eyes of Gazan filmmaker Mohammad Jabaly, who joins an ambulance crew at a dangerous time. Series of shorts
Jan 22 (7.30pm) | Jan 24 (9.30pm)
A collection of shorts — Bonbone, Exit, No Exit, The Crossing, Breaking News and I Signed a Petition — exploring the Palestinian experience.
The Man Who Stole Banksy (2018) – Documentary – 90 min
Jan 25 (7pm) | Jan 26 (5pm) Banksy makes a clandestine visit to Palestine in 2007, where one of his paintings provokes fury: a mural of an Israeli soldier checking a donkey’s ID. Local taxi driver Walid, with the support of the community, decides to cut it out of the wall and auction it off on eBay.
194. Us, children of the camp (2017) – Documentary – 85 min
Jan 26 (3pm) Filmmaker Samer Salameh is forced to join the Palestinian Liberation Army in Syria a month before the Syrian uprising. Screwdriver (2017) – Feature – 108 min Jan 26 (8pm) (This free screening will be at The Yard, AlSerkal Avenue) Eight-year-old residents of AlAmari Refugee camp, Ziad and Ramzi, become best friends after Ramzi stabs Ziad with a screwdriver. Later, the teens become stars of Al Amari basketball team when tragedy strikes, upending many lives.