We showed a diverse selection of shorts- check out a detailed synopsis on each below.

EID
Saaheb Collective / 2011 / 9 min

Eid is a Palestinian Bedouin from the village of Um el Kheir who boasts a gift for transforming scrap materials into art. Using found materials he makes miniature models of the machinery of occupation, including bulldozers and helicopters. This short playfully uses stopmotion animation and interviews to revel in Eid’s creative process.

MAQLOUBEH
Dir. Nicolas Damuni / 2012 / 9 min

Maqloubeh is a dark comic homage to the famous Palestinian dish, following five friends confined by a curfew as they attempt to perfect the recipe. After disagreeing over ingredients and methods, they finally establish common ground and complete their meal, only to be interrupted by an unexpected guest. 

RAMALLAH
Dir. Flavie Pinatel / 2014 / 28 min

French director Flavie Pinatel’s immersive sensory documentary Ramallah is a day-in-the-life portrait of the city, foregrounding its profound generational, cultural, and economic contrasts. 

RAMALLAH de Flavie Pinatel - TEASER (EN) from Films de Force Majeure on Vimeo.

A SKETCH OF MANNERS
Dir. Jumana Manna / 12 min

A Sketch of Manners is inspired by an archival photograph depicting a 1942 masquerade ball hosted by Palestinian politician Alfred Roch (Hakim Bishara). Recreating this bon vivant scene from pre-1948 urban life, artist Jumana Manna suggests the melancholic masked figures accidentally hint at their uncertain future.

NO NEWS
Dir. Eyas Salman / 2011 / 7 min

Produced by Hany Abu Assad (Paradise Now, Ford Transit), Eyas Salman's short ghost story  offers an original take on the enduring consequences of the Nakba. In an abandoned cemetery, a woman rises from her grave to find herself surrounded by strangers and met with awkward silence. Confronted with questions about time, place, and times long past... this spectral presence comes to realize that nothing has changed in some 60 years, and that nothing can go back to the way it was before.

PINK BULLET
Dir. Ramzi Hazboun / 2014 / 11 min

Palestinian filmmaker Ramzi Hazboun lives and works in Ramallah. In his stoner-caper, Pink Bullet, a group of friends in their late twenties find themselves tangling with the city’s criminal underbelly while struggling to separate hallucination from reality. 

Pink Bullet by Ramzi Hazboun - Film Trailer from Idioms Film on Vimeo.

IZRIQAQ 
Dir. Rama Mari / 2013 / 20 min

In a land dotted with killing machines, a crime can be easily covered up... Izriqaq is a story about the damage that occurs to a society after decades of desensitisation to violence and killings. It is about the never-ending loop of patriarchy that takes hold in a society never in control of its own destiny.

ISMAIL
Dir. Nora Sharif / 2012 / 28 min

Ismail is a short film set in Palestine in 1949 and inspired by the late Palestinian Painter Ismail Shammout (1930-2006). The film is a social drama that explores the ideas of exodus, survival, escape, and brotherhood. It talks about Ismail’s daily life struggle to support his family after their expulsion to a refugee camp in 1948 by the Israeli forces, and his dream to go to Rome one day to learn painting.

Ismail Short - Official Trailer (2013) from Ismail Film on Vimeo.

Thanks to The Jam Jar for screening this selection of shorts.