Today, I saw Julian Schnabel's new film Miral. It won't be arriving in theatres in the US until next March, so it will be a while until we see what effect it has, but my initial impression was amazement at what I was watching. Here was a film following many of the conventions of a traditional Hollywood film, but this time it was telling the Palestinian liberation story (which might explain why it was not produced in Hollywood and instead was a French/Israeli/Italian/Indian co-production).
The film, based on Rula Jebreal's semi-autobiographical novel of the same name, takes us from the Nakba, and children orphaned during the Deir Yassin massacre, through the first Intifada to the signing of the Oslo Accords. I know there will be criticisms, and I have a few that I'll share later, but right now I am struck by the emotional impact of the film. You follow the lead character through checkpoints, refugee camps, home demolitions, interrogations, humiliations and protests. After that it is impossible to not understand, and feel, the Palestinian call for justice.
More, at http://mondoweiss.net/2010/11/will-miral-be-this-generations-exodus.html
Although (no surprise) this was not an American-funded production, it will be given a full distribution in the USA, by Harvey Weinstein.
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