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Randa Al Shahal’s ‘Kite’ Flies Over Questions of Identity, BelongingLebanese filmmaker Randa Al Shahal, who worked for Yousef Shahin as an assistant director and won many international prizes for her film Mutahadderat (Civilized Women), tackles the issue of belonging and identity in her new film Taerat Al Waraq (Kite).The film is produced by Hampierre Balzan who had produced many films about the Arab world including the latest film Sukoot Hansawwar (Quiet, We Will Shoot) directed by Yousef Shahin. The film events take place in two Druze villages: an Arab village and another under the Israeli occupation. A girl named Lamia moves from the Arab village to get married to a relative on the Israeli side. With this movement Lamia looses all the principles which she acquired during her raising up because her new family has become loyal to Israel and the west due to the fact that the Israeli occupation of her village has distanced them from their original traditions. A spontaneous but not a political impulse grew up inside Lamia rejecting this status quo while she is still an adolescent and not fully matured girl who enters a new world that she cannot grasp. Although the two families are Arab Druze and live very close, borders which separate between them makes them different. Lamia’s relation with the new family has no similarity whatsoever with her first family ties which spurs her to stay lonely and enclosed. “I do not seek to forward any messages or formulate any stance through tackling this issue as the film does not include anything of this sort. It just presents ideas and raises inquires including the aims of borders,” Al Shahal told the daily Al Hayat. She inquired, “is drawing borders in a certain place enough to change the behavior and traditions of certain people? What are the impacts of borders on loyalty? Do they weaken or strengthen it?” Shahal chose to ask these questions through a generation of adolescents who differ from those older than them in view the fact that they were born under certain circumstances of occupation. She suggested that these adolescents did not know exactly to whom they should be loyal as they face conditions imposed upon them from outside but they do not seek to understand or have the reasons behind them explained. In the film Lamia finds herself inside a new family speaking Hebrew while she speaks Arabic. She feels this situation without asking herself any questions. She therefore succumbs due the situation out of her feeling as a stranger. This condition continues until she attempts to get out of this dilemma by going back to her village where she finds herself facing a severer situation than feeling a stranger. She discovers a big gap between herself and her original family, which does not accept her anymore because she has lost her position among them and belongs to the other side. However, Shahal has refused an award granted by UNESCO for peace for her film Mutahaderat, because she shared this prize with Israeli filmmaker Amos Geitai for his film Sahyoun in Venice festival. In a statement she released in Paris that was published by the Lebanese daily Al Safir, Randa said, "Regardless of the importance of this prize, I cannot accept because it is shared with the Israeli filmmaker." She added that her film was characterized during its three shows in the 56th session of the Venice Film Festival by a very strong turnout by the public. The Lebanese daily said the film depicts chapters of Lebanese daily life during the civil war through various and contradictory figures, yet figures that could react with the trends of the bloody events of the war. In her documentary Hurubina Al Taisah (Our Heedless Wars), Shahal investigates her own family's participation in the civil war. She interweaves the specific history of her family with the larger life of Lebanon itself. Shahal also shot the films Screens of Sand (Shashat al-Raml), 1992 and Our Heedless Wars (Hurubina Al Taisha), 1995 – f22170.com Bassam Kusa Shows Off Skills as Actor, Writer and DirectorSyrian artist Bassam Kusa has wrapped up the direction of his short film Dawalik, his third work since the film Flash, in which he played the starring role.Al Sillem Wil Thoaban: A New Romantic ComedyAl Sillem Wil Thoaban (Snakes and Ladders) is a new kind of film. First-time screenwriter Mohamed Hefzi hits the theaters with a romantic comedy directed by Tareq Al ErianUS: Meet The ParentsTagline: First Comes Love, Then Comes Interrogation.Greg Focker, Ben Stiller is head over heels Kamal Al Shinnawi, Amina Rizeq Become Millionaires By ChanceEgyptian actor Kamal Al Shinnawi is preparing to shoot the comedy series Millionerat Bel Sudfah (Millionaires By Chance) alongside Amina Rizeq9- Dungeons & DragonsTagline: This is no game.That controversial video arcade game has finally hit the silver screen. |
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