Palestinian filmmaker's "Olive" branch

[Classical_Liberal]

Palestinian filmmaker's "Olive" branch
Tue 11 November, 2003 06:59




By Brooke Comer

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Palestinian director Hanna Latif Elias has pulled off a feat that few world leaders, let alone filmmakers, could manage; he made his feature film debut, "The Olive Harvest," in Ramallah, Palestine's cultural centre, with an Arab cast and an Israeli crew.

Making the rounds on this year's festival circuit, "Harvest" screened at the Jerusalem Film Festival, was a finalist at Brazil's Sao Paulo festival, and won Special Jury Prize and Best Arab Film at last month's Cairo Film Festival. The film, the story of two Palestinian brothers who love the same woman, will screen Wednesday and Saturday at the American Film Institute Fest in Los Angeles.

Elias honed his filmmaking skills on other Israeli-Palestinian co-productions, including 60 episodes of "Sesame Street" and the short film "My Jerusalem," written, directed and produced by Palestinian and Israeli teenagers.

"I knew that if I wanted to talk about peace," says the UCLA film school grad, who splits his time between Los Angeles and Ramallah, "I would have to go to 'the other side.' When you do that, when you pray at their synagogue or mosque, your mind opens up."

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=entertainmentNews&storyID=401654§ion=news