Oscar Hopeful Features Jewish Settlers and Palestinian Nuns
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lifestyle SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2016 Oscar hopeful features Jewish settlers and Palestinian nuns n director Basil Khalil’s Oscar entry for best short film, settler family discuss among themselves whether they can Hany Abu Assad’s “Omar” scored a nomination in the best Palestinian nuns in a convent in the Israeli-occupied accept a glass of water from the nuns’ kitchen-where for- foreign-language film category. Omar, a tale of love, betray- IWest Bank face a dilemma when stranded Jewish set- bidden pork is being prepared. The events appear to the al and struggle in the Israeli-occupied territories also won a tlers seek their help. The Palestinian-French-German pro- viewer as “both amusing and absurd”, Khalil said from his jury prize in the “Un Certain Regard” category at the Cannes duction “Ave Maria” tells how Orthodox Jewish settlers home in London, but they do not mock the settlers or the festival and two top awards at the Dubai International Film crash into a statue of the Virgin Mary near a small remote nuns. Festival. In 2013 “Five Broken Cameras” - a Palestinian-Israeli convent with their car as the sabbath-and the Jewish reli- The subject of the film, shot in Hebrew, Arabic and co-production - was an Academy Award nominee in the gious ban on using the phone to seek help-begins. They English, is not religion but something broader, Khalil said. documentary section. Directed by Palestinian Emad Burnat seek assistance from five nuns who belong to a silent order “When a child is born in Israel/Palestine it is assigned its and Israeli Guy Davidi, the film documents the story of Bilin and who are therefore forbidden to contact anyone to fix friends and enemies and is told to fight for one side or the village and the struggle of its residents to protect their land the settlers’ car. other.” The film has so far won 16 awards and has been from Jewish settlers and Israel’s giant West Bank separation The two groups find themselves in “their own worst screened in over 30 countries, including at 75 festivals. “An barrier.— AFP nightmares as their rules and regulations for life are tested,” Oscar would be a wonderful acknowledgement of my work says Khalil, who was born to a Palestinian father and a as a director, the icing on the cake,” Khalil said. Basil Khalil nominated, for Short British mother in the northern Israeli Arab city of Nazareth. Although Palestinian cinema is still trailing behind in the Film (Live Action) ‘Ave Maria’, In the film, which runs for less than 15 minutes, the Jewish Arab world, it has made its mark at the Oscars. In 2014, attends the Oscar Week: Shorts evening in Beverly Hills. — AFP Pakistan Oscar hope eyes bigger prize - law reform harmeen Obaid-Chinoy made history by free if they are pardoned by their family. feature film studio and she says she will wear an winning Pakistan’s first Oscar four years outfit by Pakistani label Sana Safinaz to the Sago. Now she’s back in Hollywood, hoping Change law Oscars. to scoop a second Academy Award for her har- Saba initially seeks a conviction, but eventu- rowing film about a teenage girl shot in the face ally relents under the weight of pressure from Abuse from cleric by her own family. But while other Oscar nomi- her brother-in-law and community elders who Her Academy Award stands next to the televi- nees obsess about hair and make-up, the 37- say it is better to resolve enmity than let it fester. sion at home-with an Emmy on the other side. year-old filmmaker has a much bigger fight on Obaid-Chinoy wants to change that. Pakistani So has she dusted off a spot for a second Oscar? her hands: how to stop honor killings in Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif hosted a screening “It’s a very tough year, I have to say, and there Pakistan, where she says more than 1,000 of the film in Islamabad last week and has prom- are some fantastic films in contention,” she said. women are murdered each year by male rela- ised to rid Pakistan of the crime by tightening up Nor is it always smooth sailing at home. Just this tives for allegedly bringing shame on the family. the legislation. The filmmaker said she had week she said a video went viral of a prominent “A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness” hoped for a positive response but admitted such cleric accusing her of being immoral and calling tells the story of 19-year-old Saba who was beat- an unprecedented reaction had taken her by her a prostitute. “I think if the film were to win an en, shot and thrown into the river after she ran surprise. Academy Award, then the issue of honor killing, off to marry her fiance, whom her family initially “If we get this law passed, it will be all worth which doesn’t just affect women in Pakistan but accepted-and then decided was too poor. The it,” she said by telephone from Los Angeles after affects women around the world, would really Adi Rukin (left), Joshua Oppenheimer and Signe Byrge Sorensen who made the Oscar 40-minute film goes head to head with four oth- flying in from Pakistan, battling jet lag and an gain traction,” she said. Obaid-Chinoy expects nominated documentary ‘The Look of Silence’ attend a reception for documentary film- er nominees in the documentary short subject avalanche of pre-Oscar publicity. “The biggest officials to start work on revising the honor makers at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills. — AFP category at Sunday’s Oscars in Hollywood. victory would be to get the legislation passed-to killing legislation within weeks. Survivors of honor killings are rare and the film take forgiveness off the table, to have a law that Punjab-Pakistan’s most populous province- offers a stark look at the pain-physical and emo- deters killing women in the name of honor and has just passed laws protecting women’s rights In Indonesia, an Oscar-nominated tional-inflicted on Saba, her extraordinary for people to realize that this is a serious crime.” and taking violence against women seriously. “I resilience and ultimate failure to see her father Obaid-Chinoy has been here before. In 2012, she think society is in a flux,” she said. “While there and uncle convicted. became an instant celebrity in Pakistan for win- are very promising indicators... you also find film reopens old wounds They beat her, shot her in the face and ning an Oscar for “Saving Face,” a documentary pockets in Pakistan where violence against dumped her in a burlap sack in the river. At the that exposed the horrors endured by women women is rising,” she said, listing southern ndonesia’s first film production to be the best documentary category in 2013. last moment, she tilted her head, meaning the who survive acid attacks. Punjab, Baluchistan and the tribal belt. In the nominated for an Oscar is at once a While the first film unveiled some of 1965’s bullet grazed her cheek instead of shattering her Her success helped boost awareness about film, Saba’s father Maqsood is unrepentant. Saba Isource of national pride and of shame unrepentant killers who still remain free, skull. Somehow she managed to cling to the the particularly horrific crime, and the govern- says she has not truly forgiven him. She now has for the world’s third-largest democracy. “The Look of Silence” tells the same tale bushes and pull herself out of the water. She ment in Punjab province started processing acid a baby boy and has not travelled to Hollywood. “The Look of Silence” centers on one of the through the eyes of a victim’s family. went to police and to hospital. Obaid-Chinoy, cases through anti-terrorism courts to offer “She thought we were going to the World Cup,” worst massacres since World War Two, In the film Adi Rukun comes face to face who read about her ordeal one morning in the women speedy justice, she said. Obaid-Chinoy Obaid-Chinoy said. Her office is helping Saba when at least 500,000 people died in vio- with the alleged torturers and killers of his newspaper, tracked her down and filmed Saba’s grew up in Karachi and studied in America, but is and when they last spoke, Saba asked if she had lence that raged after then-general three siblings. “It was the hardest thing I’ve story over eight to nine months in 2014. In proud to live in Pakistan, believing the onus is won. Not yet. — AFP Suharto and the military took power fol- done in my life,” Rukun said in a telephone Pakistan, a loophole in the law allows the perpe- on people like her to help the country improve. lowing an abortive coup in 1965. A million interview. “What I wanted was to hear a trators of so-called honor killings to get off scot- Last year she started Pakistan’s first animated or more people were jailed, suspected of confession, but I saw them feel no being communists. remorse.” The films go beyond tracking the Up for best documentary at Sunday’s cathartic journeys of those involved to Academy Awards ceremony, the film has show how many continue to turn a blind forced many to confront one of the darkest eye to past crimes. “I hope the films will periods in Indonesia’s history and remains energize the movement in Indonesia banned from commercial cinemas.