20 Established 1961 Thursday, May 17, 2018 Lifestyle Features Gaza massacre film earns rave reviews at Cannes “devastating” film about the massacre of an being expelled from their homes in what is now Israel. extended Palestinian family in Gaza by Israeli “And all the Samounis were against Hamas,” Savona Aforces in 2009 has been hailed by critics at the added. Yet their land, homes and mosque were leveled Cannes film festival. Italian filmmaker Stefano Savona during a massive Israeli “anti-terrorist operation” that spent nine years trying to piece together what happened the director said turned their community into a “man- when a farming community in the north of the Gaza Strip made desert, like the moon”. was razed by Israeli special forces, killing 29 civilians Savona had been in Gaza at the time, shooting his mostly huddled together in one house. The wounded- award-winning documentary “Cast Lead”-the name largely women and children-were left for three days given to the Israeli military incursion. He befriended before the Red Cross could get to them. “Samouni the Samounis when they were allowed back to the Road”, which uses animation and 3D images to recon- ruins of their homes a fortnight after the killings. “The struct what happened and “bring alive the ghosts” of the bodies were in the bombed house for 14 days. I went victims, has had rave reviews, with one critic calling it “an there every day. People were coming back every anti-war film for the ages”. morning to go through the rubble and I would talk to The Hollywood Reporter said “its success at showing them,” he told AFP. “There were 150 people in the real lives unfathomably impacted by barbarism is beyond house, all cousins, when it was bombarded by an dispute; the accolades sure to accrue will drown out the Apache helicopter gunship.” few but noisy voices from all sides unable to see beyond Ironically the Israeli pilot who killed them emerges as their own fanatical propaganda”. The film’s premiere a kind of tarnished hero from the film for repeatedly comes as 60 people were killed after Israeli troops fired refusing orders to fire on the survivors. Savona used the on protesters in the worst violence in the Gaza Strip Red Cross, UN and the Israeli army’s own internal since the 2014 war, with at least 1,200 other Palestinians reports on the tragedy. “All that we see and hear comes wounded. Savona told AFP that his film was not from cross-checked sources,” he said. “The situation of “reportage or propaganda” but an examination of “the Gaza was tragic 25 years ago,” he told AFP. “Now it has Lebanese actress Manal Issa holds sign reading ‘Stop the attack on Gaza’ as she walks Cannes red carpet. — AFP pain and resilience of these people” trying to rebuild gotten even worse. I just wanted to show these people their lives after the 2009 massacre. The Samouni clan and let them talk for themselves.” to cover what is happening. If we had told this story in a pavilion at the festival on Tuesday to express their horror have farmed their fields in northern Gaza since time better way we might have helped, but we haven’t,” at what was happening in Gaza. French-Lebanese actress immemorial, Savona said. Red carpet protest Savona said. “I did not want to get kidnapped by my own Manal Issa later staged a protest on the red carpet With the blockade, “Gaza has become this dark place emotions in this film. Thousands of movies end up as psy- before the screening of the latest Star Wars spin-off, Pilot refused to bomb survivors on the map-a terra incognita-of which we hear and see chological blackmail,” said the director, who refused to “Solo”, holding up a placard, “Stop the Attack on Gaza”. “They consider themselves the original Gazans. almost nothing,” said the Sicilian. He was smuggled into comment on the killings in Gaza this week. Issa is the star of the Syrian film “My Favourite Fabric”, They were kind of snobbish about that. They are like a the strip through the tunnels from Egypt when he He sees his role as to simply observe, as in his docu- one of the pictures in the running for the Camera d’Or separate community within Gaza, who marry among returned to see the family in 2010, a route he said was mentary on the Egyptian revolution, “Tahrir, Liberation prize for best debut feature at Cannes. — AFP themselves and have their own dialect. “They were now “almost impossible”. “We see almost nothing of life Square”. However, several stars and directors including much less politically involved than most Gazans who there now. All we see is smoke and fire and small figures Benicio Del Toro and French actress Virginie Ledoyen are refugees,” who settled in the Strip after fleeing or running from being shot... “But we have a responsibility took part in a minute’s silence outside the Palestinian Iran’s Syria intervention gets cinematic treatment

hile Iran’s presence in Syria raises glob- ‘Not political’ humanity (during World War II), the same has Wal fears of an all-out conflict with Israel, Iran has sent military advisors, along with been happening here in the Middle East where one cinematic version of its intervention thousands of Iranian, Afghan and Pakistani “vol- we wanted to help people who had the same cul- has been a Tehran box office triumph. Released unteers” to fight in Syria. But that aspect of the ture and religion as us,” Hatamikia said. for the Persian new year at the end of March, “Be intervention is barely seen in the film, which As well as blockbusters like “Damascus Time”, Vaght-e Cham” (“Damascus Time”) pulled in focuses on explaining “what is Daesh (IS) and Ouj has made hundreds of TV documentaries almost 1.4 million viewers, making it the second- what are its crimes”, according to director and the hugely popular comedy show, “Paytakht” most popular film in the country according to Ebrahim Hatamikia. Hatamikia built his career on (Capital), now in its fifth season, which recently cinematicket.org and is now being touted abroad. the back of films about the Iran-Iraq war of the had an episode in which the main family was kid- It tells the story of father-and-son military pilots 1980s, and has occasionally run into trouble with napped by IS. Iran has couched its Syrian inter- running a rescue mission for refugees in Syria, censors over his depiction of social problems. He vention in religious terms, saying it is “defending only to be caught up in a deadly hostage-taking told AFP he is a man of the left when it comes to the shrine” of Zeinab, a granddaughter of the by the Islamic State group (IS). critiquing society but a man of the right when it Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and key figure in Filmed in Syria and Iran, it features the sort of comes to “defending the regime... for which we Shiite Islam. Western powers say Iran’s interven- tion is helping to “destabilize” the region, while Israel fears the growth of Iranian forces on its border and has launched a series of deadly air raids against their positions. Tehran emphasizes Marvel icon Stan Lee in $1bn that it is in Syria at the invitation of its long- standing ally, President Bashar al-Assad, and that its support for an established government is the lawsuit against company he started exact opposite of destabilizing. omic books legend Stan Lee is duped into signing a fraudulent agree- ‘Regrets’ Panahi ban suing the entertainment company ment that gave POW! exclusive rights to Despite his fervent support for the regime, Che co-founded for damages top- his name, identity and likeness. Hatamikia said he “really regrets and does not ping $1 billion, accusing bosses of trying According to the lawsuit, Lee was unable understand” the decision of the authorities to ban to steal his image, according to court doc- to read the document due to his eye con- his fellow filmmaker, the multi-award-winning uments filed Tuesday. The complaint, filed dition, and he doesn’t remember anyone Jafar Panahi, from working or leaving the country. in Los Angeles County Superior Court and reading it to him, suggesting that his sig- Iranian director Ebrahim Hatamikia, arrives to give an interview on his latest film “Be Vaght-e Cham” published by several US entertainment nature may have been forged, copied or (“Damascus Time”) in Tehran. — AFP photos Panahi was blacklisted after trying to make a documentary on the mass protests of 2009. media outlets, alleges that POW! induced. “In addition, POW! took con- expensive special effects rarely seen on the have given many martyrs.” His latest film “Three Faces” was shown at the Entertainment CEO Shane Duffy and co- trol of Lee’s personal social media Iranian silver screen. It ends with an act of melo- “Damascus Time” was about presenting his Cannes Film Festival this weekend, but the direc- founder Gill Champion failed to fully dis- accounts, including Facebook, Instagram dramatic self-sacrifice as one of the main charac- “vision as a Muslim”, he said. “This film is not tor was banned from attending the festival by the close to Lee details of the firm’s 2017 sale and Twitter, thereby impersonating Lee ters gives his life to prevent an attack on the political. It’s a human and humanitarian film. We Iranian authorities. Following its success in Iran, to Camsing International. The entertain- before a combined 15 million followers presidential palace in Damascus-an ending that are faced with Daesh, which displays the flag of “Damascus Time” is now looking for foreign mar- ment icon contends that they took advan- worldwide,” the complaint reads. There reportedly left Foreign Minister Mohammad Islam but is a satanic deviation,” said Hatamikia. kets, with its promoters saying it has already tage of him at a time when he was has been no response from POW! Javad Zarif with tears in his eyes when he attend- He met AFP at the offices of Ouj, a production signed contracts with Japan, South Korea, despondent over the death of his wife Entertainment to the lawsuit. But in April, ed a screening earlier this year. “I have a feeling company financed by the Revolutionary Guards, Lebanon and Poland. — AFP Joan and suffering from macular degener- the company issued a statement express- this film gives a better sense of what’s happening as seen on memorial plaques to the country’s ation, a condition affecting the eyes. ing concern for Lee amid reports that he in the region than what we see in the foreign martyrs on every floor of the building. “The The 95-year-old co-creator of many was the victim of elder abuse. —AFP media,” said Shahabi, a student, as he left a United States is always proudly announcing how superhero characters, including Black showing in Tehran recently. they sent so many soldiers to Normandy to save Panther and Spider-Man, alleges he was Special collection for a festive season Babyshop launches an exquisite collection with over 500 styles exclusively for the festive month of Ramadan abyshop, the one-stop destination and frill and exciting fashion pieces as well as and two-piece suits. 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