the Hiam Abbass Film Festival continues
Jul. 7th, 2011 08:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
notthemarimbarecently watched: (apologies for italics. I can't make it stop being italicized. I don't know why it is insisting on doing this or why it won't let me change it, but here we are)
Amreeka (2009)
Nisreen Faour plays Muna, a Palestinian woman who immigrates to the United States with her son. They settle in with her sister (Hiam Abbass!) and her family near Chicago. Muna has a hard time finding a job, her son is bullied, and her sister's husbands medical practice is losing patients rapidly, but all hope is not lost. Overall, this was a rather sweet, sensitive little movie and I would recommend it, although one should be aware that some parts are like a neverending secondhand embarrassment festival.
Free Zone (2005)
Three women (one of whom is Hiam Abbass) make a journey in a cab. That's as far as I'm going to go in describing this, because honestly, that's about as far as I got in watching it. The way Free Zone was shot makes it completely unwatchable. Everything is an intense closeup of what's going on in the cab, and when flashbacks happen they are shown as a reflection through the window on top of what's going on in the cab. I gave it a solid half hour and just couldn't go any further.
The Visitor (2008)
When I initially said I was going to watch The Visitor at some point,wrabbit said "The Visitor is, well, it was also okay. It's very "bourgie white guy is enriched by his friendship with underprivileged POC meanwhile unjust things happen to them, bourgie white guy stays bourgie only more enriched."". wrabbit is roughly 900% correct with this assessment. Basically, Professor Guy goes to visit his New York apartment only to find two immigrants squatting there. He lets them stay, and one of them is eventually arrested and deported back to Syria. Hiam Abbass, playing the deported man's mom, shows up as Tragic but Attractive Widow who has a brief fling with Professor Guy before going back to Syria to be with her son. After all of this the viewer's main comfort is supposed to be that, while bad things happened, Professor Guy is now a better person. Or something. No thank you.
to watch:
Miral (2010)
The Source (2011)
Red Satin (2002)
Haifa (1996)
Everyday is a Holiday (2009)
Pomegranates and Myrrh (2008)
Munich (2005)
Nadia et Sarra (2004)
Bab El Shams (2004)
Dawn of the World (2008)
Amreeka (2009)
Nisreen Faour plays Muna, a Palestinian woman who immigrates to the United States with her son. They settle in with her sister (Hiam Abbass!) and her family near Chicago. Muna has a hard time finding a job, her son is bullied, and her sister's husbands medical practice is losing patients rapidly, but all hope is not lost. Overall, this was a rather sweet, sensitive little movie and I would recommend it, although one should be aware that some parts are like a neverending secondhand embarrassment festival.
Free Zone (2005)
Three women (one of whom is Hiam Abbass) make a journey in a cab. That's as far as I'm going to go in describing this, because honestly, that's about as far as I got in watching it. The way Free Zone was shot makes it completely unwatchable. Everything is an intense closeup of what's going on in the cab, and when flashbacks happen they are shown as a reflection through the window on top of what's going on in the cab. I gave it a solid half hour and just couldn't go any further.
The Visitor (2008)
When I initially said I was going to watch The Visitor at some point,
wrabbit said "The Visitor is, well, it was also okay. It's very "bourgie white guy is enriched by his friendship with underprivileged POC meanwhile unjust things happen to them, bourgie white guy stays bourgie only more enriched."". wrabbit is roughly 900% correct with this assessment. Basically, Professor Guy goes to visit his New York apartment only to find two immigrants squatting there. He lets them stay, and one of them is eventually arrested and deported back to Syria. Hiam Abbass, playing the deported man's mom, shows up as Tragic but Attractive Widow who has a brief fling with Professor Guy before going back to Syria to be with her son. After all of this the viewer's main comfort is supposed to be that, while bad things happened, Professor Guy is now a better person. Or something. No thank you. to watch:
Miral (2010)
The Source (2011)
Red Satin (2002)
Haifa (1996)
Everyday is a Holiday (2009)
Pomegranates and Myrrh (2008)
Munich (2005)
Nadia et Sarra (2004)
Bab El Shams (2004)
Dawn of the World (2008)
