Film on unlucky lovers, Habibi, had its own trials

There is a compelling back-story to Susan Youssef’s Habibi, a romance shot in secrecy in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with an almost entirely Palestinian cast and crew that took nearly a decade to complete. It’s kicking off a national tour of college campuses with a screening at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia on Thursday.

“Habibi,” as some of us learned from Tom Mccarthy’s 2007 film The Visitor, is an Arabic word that translates to “my beloved.” The film’s full Arabic title is Habibi Rasak Kharban, which translates as, “Darling, something’s wrong with your head.”

Youssef, a Lebanese-american based in Amsterdam, was inspired to make the film — her first feature — after seeing a children’s performance based on the classic Persian parable

Layla and Majun ( Layla and the Madman) in a Palestinian refugee camp in the Gaza Strip in 2002.

The story, about a man driven insane by his love for an unobtainable woman, predates and in some respects anticipates Shakespeare’s

Romeo and Juliet, is said to be based on a true story of a seventh-century Bedouin poet.

(In addition to being one of the best-known works of the Arab world, it also served as the inspiration for Eric Clapton’s Derek and the Dominos’ album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. Not only did Clapton use the name “Layla” as a coded reference to George Harrison’s wife Patti Boyd — whom Clapton would eventually marry — but the lyrics to “I Am Yours” were derived from the poem.)

Youssef’s film — which unfortunately wasn’t made available for review — is a modern retelling of the story that focuses on a pair of Palestinian lovers, Qays (Kais Nashif) and Layla (Maisa Abd Elhadi), who are attending college in the West Bank in 2001. After Israeli authorities close the area, they are forced to return to their hometown in Gaza, where Layla’s wealthy, conservative and religious parents look down on the impoverished Qays.

They rebuff his proposal and look to arrange a marriage for her. Meanwhile, Qays scandalizes the family by proclaiming his love for Layla

by scribbling his love poetry on the walls of the town.

Youssef planned to shoot the film on location in the West Bank and Gaza, but after doing some location scouting and preliminary shooting in the area in 2005, Israeli authorities prevented her from entering Gaza. And so she and her crew contrived to have the mountainous West Bank double for the coastal area.

The film was well received at film festivals, including the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival, the 2011 Palm Springs International Film Festival, and the 2011 Dubai International Film Festival, where it won four major awards, including a prize for best Arab-made feature and the International Federation of Film Critics prize for best Arab feature.

The HSU screening will be at 7 p.m. in the Garrison Center Lecture Hall, and director Youssef will speak after the 78-minute feature, which is in Arabic with English subtitles. There’s no charge for the screening, but I’ve been advised that the venue seats only about 300.

Another event I want to call your attention to is the inaugural Film Forum event, “Adventures in the Art of Filmmaking,” which will be held at the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute on Petit Jean Mountain beginning Thursday.

The four-day event will bring in a host of industry professionals to talk about their experiences and offer instruction in various facets of film and television production. It doesn’t hurt that it’s held on the beautiful Rockefeller Institute campus.

As I’ve said a few times before, I genuinely believe that Arkansas is a strange and remarkable place, and that our burgeoning film culture has, for various reasons, a chance to become something special. And one of the best things that film festivals and events like this one can do is to encourage aspirational filmmakers by providing them models. Once they see that these professionals are people not too different from themselves — once they grasp that people make movies — it’s not as hard for them to imagine themselves doing the work.

And the role models they assembled for this event — my colleague Levi Agee (who should know) called them “the most eclectic and robust collection of movie industry professionals ever gathered in Arkansas” — include actors Robert Walden, a new Arkansas resident who was nominated for three Emmys for his signal role as Joe Rossi on the drama Lou Grant and is currently a regular on the TV Land situation comedy Happily Divorced; Lea Thompson (the Back to the Future trilogy, Red Dawn); directors Howard Deutch ( Pretty in Pink, Some Kind of Wonderful) and Joan Darling ( M*A* S* H; Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman; The Mary Tyler Moore Show); acting coach Sandra Seacat; producer Fred Roos ( Godfather II, Apocalypse Now); screenwriter Bill Svanoe ( Six Million Dollar Man); and Craig Renaud, the documentarian and one of the founders of the Little Rock Film Festival.

There’ll be a number of hands- on workshops and some panel discussions that will be open to the public. A full package is $750 for single occupancy, $650 per person for double occupancy.

A day package is available for $450 and includes everything except lodging, while the university student package (a current student identification is required) discounts the full package to $500 and the day package to $250. Individual panel discussions are $35 each. Meals bought in advance: $10 per breakfast, $15 per lunch, and $35 per dinner.

For more information or to register, go to livethelegacy. org or call Angie York at the Rockefeller Institute at (501) 727-6257. E-mail:

Qays (Kais Nashif) and Layla (Maisa Abd Elhadi) are star-crossed lovers in Susan Youssef’s Habibi, which is kicking off a national tour of colleges at Henderson State University next week.