April 2010

1. THE ONE MAN VILLAGE – screenings + DVD
2. ALLIGATOR at Women’s Film Festival Dortmund | Cologne
3. DVD of the month
4. Publication
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1. THE ONE MAN VILLAGE – screenings
Simon El Habre’s THE ONE MAN VILLAGE (SEMAANBIL DAY’IA) is selected to the official competition of Trento Film Festival in Italy April 29th till May 9th, 2010 .

Content
Semaan is leading a quiet life on his farm in the small village Ain el-Halazoun in the Lebanese mountains. The hamlet was completely emptied and destroyed in combats during the civil war in Lebanon between 1975 and 1990. Today, many years after an official reconciliation, its inhabitants which are all from one family regularly go back to the village to cultivate their plots of land or visit their houses and always leave before sunset.
In his comforting and humorous film Simon El Habre observes the life in his quasi ghost village and tries to reflect on the collective and individual memory in a country that seems to live in a collective amnesia and is vulnerable to a new civil war.
Simon El Habre, Lebanon 2008, 86 min, color, HDCAM, Arabic with English subtitles

The release of the DVD of the film is planned for summer 2010.
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2. ALLIGATOR at Women’s Film Festival Dortmund | Cologne
Dana Goldberg’s new short ALLIGATOR is currently showing at International Women’s Film Festival Dortmund | Cologne in Cologne.

Content
22 year old Ilana lives with her mother in an old apartment in the center of Tel Aviv. Every conversation between the two turns into a quarrel that makes Ilana run off. Wandering the ruthless, dark streets, Ilana seeks human closeness and intimacy.
Israel 2009, Dana Goldberg, ca. 20 min, HDCAM, Hebrew with Engl. Subtitles
More about the film.
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3. DVD of the Month
mecfilm-shop.com introduced the DVD of the month. After Asurot by Ada Ushpiz and Anat Even in March the DVD of this months is Itgaber by Eyal Sivan.

Content
A filmed essay about an uncompromising man. Using vocabulary that can be understood by everyone, Yeshayahou Leibowitz, philosopher and scientist, shares with us his analysis of what makes Man: will, freedom, man’s choices, what is imposed upon him and how, by “triumphing over his own self”, he can escape the heaviness of this world. Spiritual leader of the Israeli soldiers who refuse to carry out their military national service in the Occupied Territories, Prof Leibowitz, who has always been very attached to the idea of divine law, explains, in a very provocative way, his position with regards to the law and authority in general, and with regards to the Israeli State and government in particular. His uncompromising words force each individual to face up to their responsibilities, both as a human being and as a citizen.
Part1: About Science and Values (85 min)
Part 2: About State and Law (85 min)

Eyal Sivan, France/Germany 1993, 170 min (both parts) Hebrew
subtitles: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Hebrew
PAL, code free, on stock
The DVD Box includes Izkor by the same director.
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4. Publication
Palestinian cinema? by Irit Neidhardt was published in INAMO magazine (German only). The article was originally published under the titles ‘How to Talk about Palestinian Cinema? / ¿Cómo hablar de cine palestino?’ in the catalogue of the First Middle East Contemporary Cinema Week’ of Cinematca Distrital in Bogota, November 2009.