Salt of This Sea (ملح هذا البحر - Milh Hadha al-Bahr) by Annemarie Jacir

(Palestine 2008, 109 minutes, 35 mm. In Arabic and English with English ST)

Starring Suheir Hammad and Saleh Bakri

Soundtrack by Kamran Rastegar and featuring DAM, Marwan Abado, Mohsen Subhi, Shadi Zaqtan, K-Salaam and others.

At Quad Cinema

Friday, August 13 - Thursday, August 19, 1pm, 3:10pm, 5:20pm, 7:30pm, 9:50pm

ABOUT THE FILM:

Soraya, born in Brooklyn in a working class community of Palestinian refugees, discovers that her grandfather’s savings were frozen in a bank account in Jaffa when he was exiled in 1948. Stubborn, passionate and determined to reclaim what is hers, she fulfills her life-long dream of returning to Palestine. Slowly she is taken apart by the reality around her and is forced to confront her own internal anger. She meets Emad, a young Palestinian whose ambition, contrary to hers, is to leave forever. Tired of the constraints that dictate their lives, they know in order to be free, they must take things into their own hands, even if it’s illegal.

View Film Trailer

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR:

Annemarie Jacir is a Palestinian filmmaker and photographer who has been working in independent film since 1994 and has written, directed, and produced A Post Oslo History, The Satellite Shooters, and Like Twenty Impossibles. She works as a freelance editor and cinematographer and has taught courses at Bethlehem and Birzeit University in the West Bank. Recipient of several screenwriting awards, Jacir is also a poet and author. Salt of this Sea is her first feature film, and she is currently developing her second. Having been prevented from returning to Palestine, she now lives in Amman, Jordan.

Awards and Critical Acclaim

• CANNES - OFFICIAL SELECTION, 2008
• FIRST PRIZE - BEST FILM, Sguardi Altrove Film Festival, Italy 2009
• INTERNATIONAL CRITICS AWARD FIPRESCI PRIZE
• RANDA CHAHAL PRIZE, Journées Cinématographiques de Carthage, 2008
• BEST SCREENPLAY, Dubai International Film Festival, 2008
• SPECIAL JURY PRIZE, Osians Asian & Arab Film Festival, 2008
• PALESTINE'S OFFICIAL OSCAR ENTRY FOR BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM, 2008
• SOPADIN FINALIST, Grand Prix Best Screenplay, 2007
• CINEMA IN MOTION AWARDS, San Sebastian Film Festival, 2007

"Realized with verve, sincerity, and an unusual blend of documentary texture and theatrical energy." - Richard Brody, The New Yorker

"Annemarie is the Palestinian Jim Jarmush. She has developed her own cinema language, stubborn acting style and unconventional story telling, disobeying all the rules of traditional cinema." - Hany Abu-Assad, Director, Paradise Now

"This film is my personal voice, intimate,... it's the voice of my family, of my village, of my people. It's the voice of every refugee searching for his rights." - Saleh Bakri, actor

"Brilliant, emotional, intense and fresh...the kind of powerful film that stays with you long after you leave the theater. It profoundly moved me." - Michael Moore

Last updated: 2010-09-29 20:34:14