If you’d asked me a year ago did I believe cinema could change the world, I would have answered you with an enthusiastic “yes!” Now? Read on to find out…
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Amos Gitai, center, on the set of ‘Shikun’
Amos Gitai’s ‘Shikun’ promises to offer a much-needed exercise in peace
The latest film by the prolific filmmaker, theater director, architect and artist has just been announced as a Berlinale Special at the upcoming Berlin Film Festival.
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Freida Pinto and Hiam Abbass in a scene from ‘Miral’
Six films to help explain the current Gaza/Israel conflict
While festivals throughout the Region, and beyond, senselessly cancel their latest edition “in support” of the Palestinian cause, the best thing they could do would be to finally showcase cinema from Palestinian and Israeli auteurs, as well as one American filmmaker, who can collectively help explains the situation and smother the fire of warmongers with culture and education.
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“A collector of contradictions”: Amos Gitai takes us on a voyage of thinking with ‘A Tramway in Jerusalem’
“And despite the clamors and the violence, we tried to preserve in our hearts the memory of a happy sea, of a remembered hill, the smile of a beloved face.” — Albert Camus from ‘Resistance, Rebellion and Death: Essays’
As I watched Amos Gitai’s latest ‘A Tramway in Jerusalem’ with the usual anticipation I dedicate to all the works of the visionary Israeli filmmaker, I looked for the funny. After all, Gitai himself, in his director’s notes called Tramway “an optimistic and ironic metaphor of the divided city of Jerusalem”. In the synopsis of the film, the word “comedy” is used yet when I watched ‘A Tramway in Jerusalem’, more than once, I cried. Long, perfectly needed tears. The film world premiered out of competition at this year’s Venice International Film Festival.
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