SELECTION OF SHORTS
Closing Reel Palestine on Saturday 30th January 9:00pm @The Yard, AlSerkal Avenue Dubai

EPICLY PALESTINE'D
Dir. Phil & Theo / Documentary/ Arabic, English/ 2015/ 26 min

"People here just don’t know what skateboarding is... They think we’re weird.”
The words of Amr, a teenager from Birzeit, are echoed by every skater in Palestine.

“You feel different. You feel unique.” Three years ago, no-one had ever seen a skateboard in the West Bank, save for a few plastic ones in the odd toyshop. It’s still a new thing, but there’s excitement about this emerging scene.

This is the story of how skateboarding began in the West Bank, told through the eyes of the local skateboarders: the journey it has led them on and the challenges facing the skate scene and living under occupation.

THE WARREN
Dir. James Adolphus / Drama, Thriller/ Arabic, Hebrew/ 2014/ 11 min

On the eve of the Passover seder, March 27, 2002, a wave of suicide attacks against Israel reached its peak when a Palestinian blew himself up at the Park Hotel in Netanya, killing 29 civilians and wounding dozens more. In response, Israel launched an extensive military operation whose declared intent was to “strike at the terrorist infrastructure.” Reserve soldiers were called up. Emergency storehouses were opened. Operation Defensive Shield was underway.

THE WARREN is a documentary-style drama showing the Battle of Nablus, a part of Operation Defensive Shield, fought from April 5 to April 8, 2002 in
the Palestinian city of Nablus in the West Bank between the Israel Defense Forces and Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad which resulted in the death of seventy Palestinian fighters and eight Palestinians civilians as well as one IDF officer, ultimately resulting in a Israeli victory.

THOUGH I KNOW THE RIVER RUNS DRY
Dir. Omar Robert Hamilton / Drama/ 2014/ 19 min

He has returned to Palestine. On his journey through the country he relives the trauma of his past and the choice that sent him to America - a choice between a passport for his unborn child and a safe haven for his activist brother.

AVE MARIA
Dir. Basil Khalil/ Comedy/ Arabic, Hebrew/ 2014/ 15 min

The nuns of the ‘Sisters of Mercy’ Convent, in the middle of the West Bank wilderness, have their daily routine of silence and prayer disrupted when a family of Jewish settlers come knocking at their door for help after crashing into the convent’s wall.