Festivaling

Today is the fourth day of the festival and the energy is amazing.  Opening night was completely sold out and we had to turn people away. The opening night film, Jaffa, was a hit. The story of a Jewish girl from Yaffa falling in love with a Palestinian and bearing his child was a promise of what could be if Palestinians and Jews were less afraid of one another. The film is more a fantasy than anything else, and has a lot of heart. At the party afterwards people couldn’t stop talking about it.

One of the stars of the film, Mahmoud Shalabi landed in Newark at 4:10 and was there for the Q and A at 9:00. He was charming and let us in on all the secrets behind the story that Jaffa tells (Keren Yedaya who wrote the script had a romance with a Palestinian Israeli).

He appeared at my house for a brunch along with all of the festival guests on Saturday. He is young and full of life. The conversation was lively, and despite some disagreements, we all agreed that the politicians have failed in creating a platform for co-existence, and now our only hope is dependent on the artists.   

Saturday night we screened Laila’s Birthday. In this moving film we follow a dignified judge in Ramallah, who is forced to drive a taxi due to political corruption. Mohammad Bakri turns in a stunning performance as the tightly buttoned judge Abu-Laila. The film gives us a picture of the absurdity of daily life in Ramallah, and boldly criticizes some of the internal issues of Palestinian life in the west bank. But the bottom line is of the film, is that above all, is family, and one could not help but admire the warm family celebrating their daughter’s eighth birthday.