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Catatonic with a bright red swollen eye, middle-aged Rafik (Majd Mastoura) sits handcuffed inside a police station in the aftermath of a violent outburst at his soul-crushing office job. Whatever gripe eroded his sanity doesn’t matter as much now, since the incident, including a suicide attempt, unearthed a supernatural ability he possesses. An unpredictable oddity of a film, “Behind the Mountains” sees seasoned Tunisian writer-director Mohamed Ben Attia step away from the straightforward social realist drama of his previous festival standouts “Dear Son” and “Hedi,” while staying steadfast in his interest for emotionally intricate protagonists and the complications of parent-child relationships.

Four years after the breakdown that landed him in prison, Rafik kidnaps his son Yassine (Walid Bouchhioua), an impressionable grade-school kid who barely remembers his father, and drives away from the capital and into the open spaces of the mountainous countryside. In brief exchanges, we learn of Rafik...

Move over, Richard Donner.

In “Behind the Mountains,” premiering in Venice’s Horizons section, Mohamed Ben Attia makes sure “you’ll believe a man can fly” once again. Although it might not be as graceful.

“I didn’t want him to be like a superhero or fly like Superman. He is floating, struggling with gravity,” he says about his protagonist Rafik, who gives up his entire life – and even ends up in jail – chasing an impossible dream. But there is one place where dreams come to life and he wants his son to experience it too.

The Tunisian director, also behind “Hedi” and “Dear Son,” was hesitant to play with supernatural elements at first.

“I don’t have any technical background. I am not technical at all! But I’ve become obsessed with this man, who extracts himself from his community in such a radical way. I kept seeing an...

"You saw me fly, Yassine, right?" Luxbox has revealed a festival promo trailer for a film titled Behind the Mountains from Tunisia, which is premiering at the 2023 Venice Film Festival currently underway in Italy. This looks like one of the most exciting discoveries of the festival, though not many people are paying attention to it yet - maybe this trailer will help build some buzz. The vague description says – the film is about a man who violently breaks free from his banal environment, evading society with its principles, codes and institutions. Majd Mastoura stars as Rafik. "It's the story of a man who violently breaks free from his banal environment, subtracting himself from society with its principles, codes, and institutions." He takes his son to show him something incredible. Also starring Walid Bouchhioua, Samer Bisharat, Selma Zghidi, and Helmi Dridi. This trailer gives a big hint that it's the ability...

Spring release planned on British-Palestinian filmmaker Basil Khalil’s culture-clash comedy-drama.

Cohen Media Group has acquired US rights to British-Palestinian filmmaker Basil Khalil’s TIFF Discovery premiere A Gaza Weekend.

‘A Gaza Weekend’: Toronto Review

Khalil’s made his feature directorial debut on the culture-clash comedy-drama about a couple stranded amid a deadly virus outbreak which has sealed off Israel and turned the Gaza Strip into the safest place in the region.

A British journalist and his Israeli girlfriend who want to flee Israel must place their faith in two Palestinian street merchants who promise a way out in exchange for cash.

One of the few good things on the margins of the long-standing Israeli-Palestinian conflict is that there is at least some cultural exchange between the sides, so dissonant tones critical to the official policies can be heard, at least coming from the Israeli side. One of those voices certainly belongs to filmmaker and screenwriter Eran Kolirin whose film “The Band’s Visit” (2007) dared to ask a crucial question how it is for good people at a wrong place, such was the case of the visiting Egyptian band in Israel.

Kolirin’s newest film “Let It Be Morning” is a proper Israeli-Palestinian collaboration, based on the novel by the Palestinian journalist-writer Sayed Kashua, known for the source material of the films “Private” (2004) and “A Borrowed Identity” (2014), and on the topic of the Israeli Arabs and their need to re-assess the identities they have built in the times of distress. Filmed with a...

"Why did you betray your people?" IFC Films has revealed a new trailer for an indie from Palestine titled Huda's Salon, which premiered at last year's Toronto Film Festival. It also played at other festivals last year including Philadelphia, Busan, Woodstock, Miami, and AFI Fest. Based on real events, Huda's Salon is a timely political drama about two women who find themselves in a dangerous and complex web of betrayal. While both of them navigate how far their loyalties will go—to family and country—Abu-Assad masterfully orchestrates the tensions into a crescendo. The film stars Ali Suliman, Maisa Abd Elhadi, Manal Awad, Kamel El Basha, Samer Bisharat, and Omar Abu Amer. This received some rave reviews from critics, saying the film is a "combination of moral quandary and ticking clock peril." It seem worth a watch. Here's the official US trailer for Hany Abu-Assad's Huda's Salon, direct from...

Huda’s Salon

Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad heads into his eighth feature with Huda’s Salon, a based-on-a-true-story nightmare which was forced to halt production twice due to the pandemic. Scripted by Abu-Assad, he’s joined in the producer’s seat by Amira and Maher Diab, Shahinaz el Akkad, and Alaa Karkouti. Lensed by Ehab Assal (who shot Abu-Assad’s Omar and The Idol), Manal Awad stars as Huda, joined by the stellar Ali Suliman, Maisa Abd Elhadi, and Samer Bisharat. Abu-Assad’a major breakout was 2005’s Paradise Now, which competed in Berlin and won several prizes. 2013’s Omar played in Un Certain Regard at Cannes where it picked up a Special Jury Prize and his 2002 debut Rana’s Wedding was in Critics’ Week.…...

Network: Hulu. Episodes: 10 (hour). Seasons: One. TV show dates: February 28, 2018 — April 18, 2018. Series status: Ended. Performers include: Jeff Daniels, Tahar Rahim, Wrenn Schmidt, Bill Camp, Louis Cancelmi, Virginia Kull, Ella Rae Peck, Sullivan Jones, Michael Stuhlbarg, Kelly P. Williams, Erica Cho, Katie Flahive, Jennie Paul, Samer Bisharat, Jamie Neumann, Tawfeek Barholm, Ali Suliman, Ibrahim Renno, and Peter Sarsgaard. TV show description: A counter-terrorism drama, based on the Lawrence Wright book, The Looming Tower TV show explores the rise of Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda, beginning in the late 1990s. It also delves into the issue of whether the tug-of-war between the FBI and CIA could have accidentally helped set the stage for the tragedy of September 11, 2001...

★★★★★Hany Abu-Assad's Oscar-nominated Omar (2013) is a gripping political drama about a young Palestinian baker and freedom fighter (Adam Bakri), who's forced to become an informant. Set in occupied Palestinian territories, we first see Omar successfully scaling the impossibly high separation wall, a forbidding construct covered in graffiti, only to be shot at as he nears the top. Omar has to cross the barrier in order to visit his childhood pals Tarek (Iyad Hoorani) and Amjad (Samer Bisharat). He's in love with Tarek's sister Nadia (Leem Lubany) and each time they meet for coffee, the pair covertly exchange love letters. At night, the friends train as freedom fighters and plan to kill an Israeli solder.

True Detective I have told quite a few people to check out "True Detective" and even loaned my father-in-law this new Blu-ray to check out as he had not yet watched it. Considering how each season will be one contained storyline I'd say this is an easy buy if you liked it and not something you need to wait until several seasons are made available as one giant box set.

Non-Stop It's easy to laugh and dismiss a movie like Non-Stop, but it's actually not that bad. It does have a rather typical ending as they opted to go the standard direction with the "what's really going on questionc", but it's still a movie you won't mind renting, though a buy is out of the question.

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit On the other hand, Jack Ryan isn't even worth the rental, just flat out not a good movie. Too bad,...

Nominated for an Academy Award, Hany Abu-Assad’s compelling drama Omar comes to the UK with a bonafide seal of approval – and it’s irrefutably deserving of such recognition. As you can probably imagine from the conspicuous title, this is a captivating, profound character study, where the audience are able to embody the fascinating, eponymous lead.

Adam Bakri takes on the role of Omar, an impassioned, Palestinian freedom fighter who is imprisoned for his part in the shooting of an Israeli soldier, taking the heat off his two accomplices, and close friends, Amjad (Samer Bisharat) and Tarek (Iyad Hoorani). When tricked into an admission of guilt, he has little option but to become an informant for the enemy, putting not only his own life in jeopardy, but also that of his girlfriend, Nadia (Leem Lubany).

Within a mere matter of moments, both Marlon Brandon and Brad Pitt are referenced, and...

Omar (2014) Film Review, a movie directed by Hany Abu-Assad, and starring Adam Bakri, Leem Lubany, Waleed F. Zuaiter, Samer Bisharat, and Iyad Hoorani. I would argue that, by and large, a sizable portion of the World’s population knows, or has known, a thing or two about occupation. Even in the [...]

Continue reading: Film Review: Omar (2014): Great Desire Means Greater Leverage...

Omar

Directed by Hany Abu-Assad

Palestine, 2013

Omar (Adam Bakri in his feature-film debut) considers himself a Palestinian freedom fighter. The Israeli authorities in the central West Bank consider him a terrorist. After participating in an assassination under the guidance of Tarek (Iyad Hoorani) and alongside his childhood friend Amjad (Samer Bisharat) he’s arrested and convinced to work as an informer.

The most thrilling part of this thriller is, oddly enough, not the action and suspense. It’s the love story. That’s rare for the genre, which usually lets any romantic angle stand to the side as filler.

Omar has long loved Nadia (Leem Lubany, the standout performer), Tarek’s younger sister. Their relationship, like the film, begins mostly silently with exchanged looks and notes before becoming something close to melodrama toward the middle of the second act. When Amjad comes into the picture as a potential suitor the plot twists,...

Omar

Directed by Hany Abu-Assad

Palestine, 2013

The chronic, seemingly unsolvable Israeli/Palestinian conflict provides the perfect backdrop for narrative storytelling, as all the pieces are in place for a tense, personalized historical rendering. In fact, two other films this year have already addressed the issue: The Attack, from Lebanese director Ziad Douerir, and Zaytoun, from Israeli director Eran Riklis; each look at the personal toll caused by war. Inherently polemical discourse rarely makes much of an impact on the opposing side, and while bridge-gapping is sometime present in films dealing with this Middle Eastern crisis, it’s understandable when a more hardened approach is taken. Such is the case with Hany Abu-Assad’s Omar, a well-made Palestinian film that presents the experience with little interest in broaching peaceful dialogue.

A concrete Separation Wall divides the occupied West Bank town where Omar (Adam Bakri) lives. This barrier, both physical and metaphorical,...

There is a giant metaphor sitting in the Occupied West Bank, in the shape of a wall. That isn’t meant to diminish the massive, real-world impact that the wall has on the inhabitants on either side, mind you. It’s simply that the enormous Israeli barrier, bisecting the lands and lives of the people around it, is an extraordinary symbol. Like that of Cold War Berlin, it stands as a powerful representation of something, though what that may be depends on the artist. And few have handled it quite like Hany Abu-Assad. Omar, Abu-Assad’s second Oscar-nominated feature, is the story of a young man stuck in the middle. The titular Omar (Adam Bakri) is linked with the wall from the very beginning. He climbs up and down with just a sturdy rope, commuting (illegally) between his home neighborhood in the West Bank and the bakery where he works. The...

Acts of terror aren’t always cataclysmic. Sometimes they work slowly and quietly, seeping under the skin until the sufferer doesn’t feel like himself anymore. Terror plagues the titular character of the excellent Palestinian drama “Omar,” who can no longer walk down the street or sit in his home without expecting a burst of sudden violence or spontaneous cruelty from the Israeli police. That’s partly because Omar (Adam Bakri) and his two friends Tarek (Eyad Hourani) and Amjad (Samer Bisharat) are terrorists, too. Hany Abu-Assad’s Oscar-nominated film is an insightful study in contrasts between the defiant, ragtag terror the trio strive.

The Dubai International Film Festival (Diff, December 6-14), which celebrates its tenth edition this year, will pay tribute to Arab cinema by opening with Hany Abu Assad’s Omar.

The acclaimed feature, starring Adam Bakri, Samer Bisharat, Eyad Hourani and Waleed Zuaiter, was supported by Diff’s post-production and production funding support programme Enjaaz. Assad’s Paradise Now opened the second edition of Diff.

As previously announced, David O Russell’s American Hustle will close the festival, which will screen a total of 174 features, shorts and documentaries, including 70 world premieres and 11 international premieres from 57 countries. The line-up includes more than 100 films from the Arab world, highlighting the growing film culture in the region,

Two red carpet galas will be held each day to celebrate the tenth edition – including Frozen, August: Osage County, Labor Day, Mohamed Khan’s Factory Girl, 12 Years A Slave, Fruitvale Station, The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty, Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom, [link...

Omar, Palestine's Submission for the Academy Award Nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. U.S. : Adopt Films. International Sales Agent: The Match Factory

There is nothing new under the sun when it comes to the Palestinian/ Israeli conflict. The rules have been set for a very long time, and both sides have their own perception of the situation. What is still intriguing, however, is the way people adapt and live within such parameters, and how life is affected by the occupation, the division, and the perpetual animosity. Director Hany Abu-Assad has been the unofficial cinematic spokesman for the Palestinian cause for some time now. His stories, although set in the midst of the war ridden towns of his homeland, are much more about the emotional scars and the spirit of survival that people there have developed. Omar, his latest tale focuses on a man who finds himself betraying those closest to him in the hope of being with his loved one.

Skillfully used to it and as part of his daily routine Omar (played outstandingly by newcomer Adam Bakri) must jump the wall that divides the occupied and non-occupied communities. He works as a baker on one side of the wall but his friends and secret girlfriend Nadja (Leem Lubany ) live on the other side. In spite of the constant reminders that his freedom is an illusion - Israeli soldiers repeatedly harass him abusing their power- Omar doesn’t have any vengeful plans of his own, his main concern is to get his best friend Tarek (Iyad Hoorani ), also Nadja’s brother, to give him her hand in marriage. Nonetheless, soon enough the seed of violence is planted in him by Tarek and their puny bud Amjed (Samer Bisharat) then they decide to shoot an Israeli soldier as their grain of sand in the efforts of liberation.

After carrying out the deed, Omar falls in the hands of the police and is submitted to less than friendly treatment to coerce him into spilling the truth about Tarek’s whereabouts. Persuaded by ruthless Agent Rami (renowned Palestinian-American actor Waleed Zuaiter), he reluctantly agrees, but, instead of keeping his word, he conspires with his posse to retaliate against the Israeli occupying forces once more. It fails. In custody again and looking at almost a century in prison, he must make a choice. Either he joins the ranks of the enemy as an informant in exchange for a second chance or he accepts a life behind bars never to see Nadja again.

In this tragic romantic-thriller with Romeo and Juliette undertones, Abu-Assad uses the physical separation as a motif for the conflicting duality Omar experiences. In a land where loyalty is the most valued currency, betrayal is outright unacceptable. But in order to save his life and not be ostracized by his own, Omar is forced to be disloyal to both sides simultaneously. Agent Rami claims his full cooperation knowing he has no other choice if he wants to recover his pseudo-liberty; on the other hand, his compatriots expect the same allegiance on the grounds of their shared suffering and struggles to claim back their land. Therefore, when a loathsome secret is uncovered, Omar’s sacrifices seem to have been in vain and his vision of the future is shattered, an event that shifts the thrilling narrative into full gear leading to an accidental murder and an unexpected, abrupt, but powerful conclusion.

This is Abu-Assad’s second film entirely done in the torn ancient land after his Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe-winning Paradise Now. Analyzing the conflict from a different and less political point of view, Omar is equally compelling. At one point in the film, defeated and tired of running from all the troubles that chase him, the title character is seen crying at the bottom of the wall he has climbed so many times before without trouble. His childhood friendships are now nonexistent and the redeeming strength his love for Nadja once gave him is also gone. There is no community to go back to and he will never be fully trusted by the opposite side. Abu-Assad’s electrifying Omar is essentially a film about an orphan and a foreigner in the place he calls home, to a certain extent that devastating feeling summarizes the troubling Palestinian experience.

Read more about all the 76 Best Foreign Language Film Submission for the 2014 Academy Awards...

A screed is a screed no matter its superficial genre trappings, as evidenced by Hany Abu-Assad’s Omar, whose thriller machinations are merely a vehicle to deliver narrow-minded political preaching. Boasting none of the nuance that defined his last look at Israeli-Palestinian tensions, 2005’s Paradise Now, director Abu-Assad’s latest charts the fractured odyssey of twentysomething Palestinian Omar (Adam Bakri). When not baking bread, Omar spends his days scaling the security wall – a symbolic reflection of how Israeli policy has divided his life – in order to see girlfriend Nadia (Leem Lubany), and occupies himself at night conspiring with best friends Tarek (Eyad Hourani) and Amjad (Samer Bisharat) to kill an Israeli soldier. While Oma...

Omar

Directed by Hany Abu-Assad

Palestine, 2013

The chronic, seemingly unsolvable Israeli/Palestinian conflict provides the perfect backdrop for narrative storytelling, as all the pieces are in place for a tense, personalized historical rendering. In fact, two other films this year have already addressed the issue: The Attack, from Lebanese director Ziad Douerir, and Zaytoun, from Israeli director Eran Riklis; each look at the personal toll caused by war. Inherently polemical discourse rarely makes much of an impact on the opposing side, and while bridge-gapping is sometime present in films dealing with this Middle Eastern crisis, it’s understandable when a more hardened approach is taken. Such is the case with Hany Abu-Assad’s Omar, a well-made Palestinian film that presents the experience with little interest in broaching peaceful dialogue.

A concrete Separation Wall divides the occupied West Bank town where Omar (Adam Bakri) lives. This barrier, both physical and metaphorical,...