April 2006

1. YEAR ZERO: „Big Cinema“ – „Don't miss it!!“ - opens in theatres 13.4.06
2. Filmstiftung NRW funds theatrical release of „News from Home“
3. Tour: Film & Discussion „Just Married“
4. WDR acquires broadcast rights of Atash
5. screenings
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1. Year Zero: „Big Cinema“ – „Don't miss it!!“
opens in German theatres 13.4.06

Big Cinema from Israel, a mile stone like Life according to Agfa (Westfälische Nachrichten)
highly entertaining (TV Movie)
Don't miss it!! (epd-film)

A sensitive and smug snap-shot of Israeli society at the beginning of the new millennium. Against the background of economic crisis and the widening gap between the poor and the rich the film tells three day-to-day stories from the lively metropolis Tel Aviv.
Joseph Pitchhadze, Israel 2004, 131 min, 35mm
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2. Filmstiftung NRW funds theatrical release of News from Home

Film Fund North-Rhine Westfalia funds the German theatrical release (7.9.06) of Amos Giati's new documentary News From Home/News From House which had its World Premiere at Berlin International Film Festival 2006.

Synopsis

Abandoned by its Palestinian owner in the 1948 war; requisitioned by the Israeli government as vacant; rented to Jewish Algerian immigrants in 1956; purchased by a university professor who undertakes its transformation into a three-story house in 1980…

This West Jerusalem building is no longer the microcosm it once was 25 years ago. Its inhabitants dispersed, this common space has disintegrated, but remains both an emotional and physical center at heart of the Israeli-Palestinian situation. Concrete reality has transformed into scattered stories and memories. A new identity, a new diaspora, have evolved.

With NEWS FROM HOME/NEWS FROM HOUSE, Amos Gitai completes the trilogy which began with 1980’s HOUSE and continued in 1998’S A HOUSE IN JERUSALEM. Creating a sort of human archeology, Gitai explores the relationships between the house’s inhabitants, past and present, between Israelis and Palestinians. Each in his or her own way becomes a sign of the region’s, the world’s, destiny.

Amos Gitai, 97 min, Israel/Belgium/France, Arabic/Hebrew/English with subtitles, 35mm

World Sales: Cinephil
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3. Tour: Film & Discussion Just Married

mec film organized a tour in Germany for Ayelet Bechar's award winning documentary JUST MARRIED. The director and one protagonist travel with the film.

The theme of Just Married is Israel's discriminatory family reunification process, which has been frozen since 2003. Because no unification applications are currently being accepted, Palestinians from the occupied West Bank (excluding Jerusalem, which Israel illegally annexed in 1967) and Gaza Strip who marry Israeli citizens or residents are unable to legally live with their spouses in Israel or occupied East Jerusalem.

26.4.06 um 19.30h Freiburg: Kino im Wehrbahnhof
27.4.06 um 20.00h Augsburg: Thalia
2.05.06 um 20.15h Hannover: Kino im Kuenstlerhaus
3.05.06 um 20.30h Oldenburg: Cine k in der Kulturetage
4.05.06 um 20.30h Berlin: Eiszeit Kino (with support of Heinrich-Boell-Foundation)
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4. WDR acquires broadcast rights of Atash

German public TV WDR acquired the broadcast rights for Tawfik Abu Wael's award winning Atash (Thirst). Transmission will be in autumn 2006.
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5. screenings

mec film presents in April
at Festivals

LIKE TWENTY IMPOSSIBLES (Annemarie Jacir)
23.4.06 London Palestine Film Festival

in theatres (Germany only)
ATASH (Tawfik Abu Wael)
30.3.-7.4.06 Kino im mon ami Weimar

PROMISES (Carlos Bolado, BZ Goldberg, Justine Shapiro)
19.-23.4.06 Kino im Wehrbahnhof Freiburg
12.04.06 VHS Ulm

ROUTE 181 – Fragments of a Journey in Palestine-Israel (Michel Khleifi, Eyal Sivan)
26.04.06 VHS Ulm

YEAR ZERO (Joseph Pitchhadze)
13.-26.4.06 Koelner Filmhaus
6.04.-3.5.06 Eiszeit Berlin
31.3.-11.4.06 Cinema Muenster

in Galleries / Museums
LIKE TWENTY IMPOSSIBLES (Annemarie Jacir)
22.4.-30.5.06 New Territories, Cultuurcentrum Brugge