Miral (2011)

My Rating : 3.5/5 STAR
MovieStudio Quote >> “A controversial political thriller based on the Palestine Israel war for peace.”

From Julian Schnabel, Academy Award (C) nominated director of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Before Night Falls and Basquiat, comes Miral, the story of four women whose lives intertwine in the starkly human search for justice, hope and reconciliation amid a world overshadowed by conflict, rage and war.

The story begins in war-torn Jerusalem in 1948 when Hind Husseini (HIAM ABBASS, The Visitor, Amreeka) opens an orphanage for refugee children that quickly becomes home to 2000 orphans. One of the children is seventeen year old Miral (FRIEDA PINTO, Slumdog Millionaire) who arrived at the orphanage 10 years earlier, following her mother’s tragic death.

On the cusp of the Intifada resistance, Miral is assigned to teach at a refugee camp where she falls for a fervent political activist, Hani (OMAR METWALLY, Munich, Rendition) and finds herself in a personal battle that mirrors the greater dilemma around her: to fight like those before her or follow Mama Hind’s defiant belief that education will pave a road to peace.

I Am Slave (2010)

My Rating : 4/5 STAR
MovieStudio Quote >> “A triumphant movie captured in the true sense of photography and emotions. Award deserving performance from Wunmi, Isaach and Lubna!!”

A young woman struggles to regain the freedom that’s been stolen from her in this drama from filmmaker Gabriel Range. Malia (Wunmi Mosaku) comes from a proud Sudanese family, and her father Bah (Isaach De Bankole) is a tribal leader and a man of no small power in their community. But none of that means much when Malia is captured with a number of other young women in a raid on their village by mujahideen soldiers.

Malia is shipped off to Khartoum, where she’s sold to an Arab family and Laila (Hiam Abbass) uses violence and humiliation to break her spirit and make her an obedient servant. After several years, Laila sends Malia to London to work for her cousin Haleema (Lubna Azabal), but there is little change in her routine — Malia works all day and all night, receives no pay, has no free time or privileges, and is rarely allowed outside as she tries to find some way to regain her freedom. I Am Slave received its North American premiere at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival.

Lemon Tree (2008)

My Rating: 5/5 STARS
MovieStudio Quote >> “My first Israeli movie. Love the natural touch, and Hiam’s absolutely fantastic as ever!”

Salma Zidane (Hiam Abbass), a 45 years old widow from a small Palestinian village in the West bank, finds herself at war with the Israeli Minister of Defense (Doron Tavory) who built his house on the green line border between Israel and the occupied Territories on the edge of Salma’s lemon grove. soon enough the Israeli security forces claim that the grove is a threat to the safety of the minister and issue orders to uproot the lemon trees. salma, whose son is in America and daughters live far away from her, decides to fight for her trees.

She embarks on a legal journey all the way up to the Israeli Supreme Court. Salma is joined by a young Palestinian lawyer, Ziad Daud (Ali Suliman), who fights against a wall of clever military lawyers who have the backing of the government. Ziad, 34, divorced from a Russian woman he met while attending law school in Moscow, falls in love with Salma. Their love affair is a complicated and dangerous one as Palestinian widows are not free to do whatever they like, certainly not fall in love, certainly not with younger men…

Salma realizes that she has inner strengths that allow her to continue her lonely quest, despite the pressures put on her from both sides – Israeli and Palestinian. Salma is fighting for trees that were planted by her father over 50 years ago, trees that have absorbed blood, sweat and tears like the whole region. She will not let them be cut down just to satisfy absurd security requirements.

On the other side of the grove, Mira Navon (Rona Lipaz-Michael), the Minister’s wife, is also undergoing a major change in her life. After fulfilling her duties for so many years, and despite the new house and her husband’s new and powerful job, she feels unhappy. The clock is ticking away and there must be more to life than her share so far. The events around her invisible new neighbor gradually raise her awareness of her husband’s approach to the whole affair, and she finds herself defying what is expected of her. A bond is created between the two women, each of them discovering a new life ahead of them, each in her own territory, across the deep border between them.

P.S – Check Hiam’s “The Visitor” and also “The Syrian Bride“.