Published in IndieWire.com

Lorber Films has picked up U.S. rights to Belgium, France, Palestine production,

“Salt of the Sea,”

by debut director, Annemarie Jacir. Richard Lorber, co-president and CEO of

Lorber Films negotiated the pact with Yoann Ubermulhin of Pyramide International.

The film, produced by Danny Glover, will have its U.S. theatrical premiere on August 13th at New York’s Quad Cinemas, followed by engagements in select cities, with DVD and digital distribution to follow in the first quarter of 2011.

The film is described by Lorber as the “politically and emotionally explosive story of Soraya (Suheir Hammad), a Brooklyn-born woman of Palestinian lineage who comes to Israel to search for the land and ancestral home near Jaffa from where her grandparents were ejected 60 years ago. Once she arrives, reality strikes hard and her mission to claim what is hers and fulfill her lifelong dream to ‘return’ to Palestine is obstructed at every turn.  Having discovered that her grandfather’s bank account was frozen and seized in 1948, she goes to the new Ramallah branch of the bank to claim the funds.  Frustrated and deluded when her demands are rebuffed, she and her new Palestinian boyfriend Emad decide to take control of their own destinies.”

“‘Salt of the Sea’ is an incredibly timely, groundbreaking work and a formidable debut from a new filmmaking talent,” said Lorber in a statement. “That Annemarie Jacir also happens to be female and Palestinian marks this film as part of a bold new chapter in Palestinian cinema. This film touches nerves on every side because of the combined political and emotional impact of the story, and Annmarie’s daring gift for unspooling human drama and primal themes.”

Kino Lorber is the newly formed company that combined Lorber Films, Alive Mind and Kino International and its heads, Richard Lorber and Donald Krim, specializing in independent film distribution.

“Salt of the Sea”:

109 Minutes. English and Arabic with English Subtitles. Belgium, France, Palestine. Directed by Annemarie Jacir. Screenplay by Annemarie Jacir. Produced by Danny Glover.

Jimmy Johnson, The Electronic Intifada, 21 July 2010

Women march against the Israeli wall in a scene from Budrus.

Event-based storytelling is an infamous form most prominent in the science fiction sub-genre of the Space Opera. The main failing of the style is the general inability of event progression to effectively substitute for character development. Budrus is an event-based story without all but the most minimal character development, yet it still succeeds by compellingly capturing a moment. Director Julia Bacha combines conventional point-and-shoot with in situ interviews, beautiful and sometimes chaotic footage of protests, maps, graphics and a bit of expository text to piece together a lovely film exploring the evolution of the West Bank village of Budrus’ resistance to Israel’s wall, and its reclaiming of its destiny.

The film opens with Palestinian community organizer Ayed Morrar laying out strategies of “popular resistance and nonviolence.” He puts together the basic tenets of the struggle: Palestinian demands for the right to self-determination and dignity. The West, Israel included, has long embraced such views; the difference being in Budrus, Palestinians take them much more seriously than the West. They evidently believe they are equally human and hold such rights to be literally universal. How dare they!

Israel’s privileged enjoyment of rights is captured in the film in an interview with Israeli army captain Doron Spielman who states that “Ultimately speaking a nonviolent protest is not going to stop the ultimate way of the fence. It’s not going to happen. Because Israeli men, women and children need to go sleep at night.” It’s as authentic a representation of Israel’s rationalization of its 43-year occupation as one could find and it also represents the greatly circumscribed ideals all too common in Israeli society: with true peace thought unattainable, the replacement ideal becomes “peace and quiet.” Bacha allows Spielman and others the room to say their peace and let it sink or swim in the film based on the context alone, only once offering an explicitly contradictory voice in succession.

The film’s three main characters are the village of Budrus, Israel’s wall in the occupied West Bank, and “The Struggle.” The interplay between these characters speaks to the intimacy of the environment to culture and culture to life. A local farmer explains that in agricultural villages like Budrus, “Death, stealing the land, and uprooting the trees are one and the same.” This context adds weight to scenes of the Israeli army uprooting parts of an olive grove. The land-culture-life connection is never clearer than a scene where a middle-aged farmer says to a border policeman: “You uprooted my olive trees? I have nowhere else to move them.” The pain and dislocation are written in his expressions and mannerisms.

The struggle in Budrus is not limited to Palestinian liberation. There is factionalism, interference by the Palestinian Authority, fatalism, gender concerns, media difficulties — Al-Jazeera will only come if there is a spectacle — and other problems. Herein is one of the film’s greatest accomplishments. Budrus documents how the struggle against Israel’s wall brought about broader community liberation. Ayed demands his community respect its own potential and become agents for change: “Either we call it fate and give up like we usually do, saying: ‘This is the will of God.’ Or we consider it an injustice that must be faced and challenged.”

Meanwhile, Ayed’s daughter Iltizam expresses skepticism about the lack of women’s participation. “We saw the men trying to push the soldiers and none of them could do that,” she says with a conspiratorial grin. “But I think the girls could do that.” And so it went. And so they did.

The film threatens to fall into all kinds of traps of schmaltz and slogans but never does. It seems like it’s going towards political partisanship then doesn’t. It feels like it’s going towards Palestinian epiphanies of, “Oh, there are nice Israelis too,” then avoids the easy answer. It’s not because Budrus is an exceptionally accomplished film. There is almost a complete lack of character development and the lack of temporal context (When did all this happen? How long did it take?). The film is often very predictable all of this points to a flawed film. The camerawork is unremarkable if unobtrusive. Although the film doesn’t feel like it should be as good as it is, with Ayed, Iltizam, teacher and organizer Ahmed Awwad, Israeli border police, military spokesmen, activists and anarchists combining with footage of protests, organizing, brutal policing and debates, Budrus captures truthfully a remarkable moment. And “The Struggle” makes for a very moving character even though the individuals shaping it remain largely props.

The film does have one notable misstep for which the filmmakers can only be held partially responsible, it occasionally dips into facile versions of “can’t-we-all-just-get-along-ness.” Nicolas Kristof’s recent New York Times editorial invokes both the film and the village as part of a horribly paternalistic suggestion that Palestinians need only have “their own Gandhi” to deserve the right of self-determination. The reality of solidarity and joint struggle between Israeli leftists and Palestinians is very complex due to the occupier-occupied and colonizer-colonized dynamic. The people of Budrus and their comrades standing in solidarity struggled hard and not always successfully to navigate the colonial relationship and recognize the tension between real solidarity and paternalism. There is much to cover in the film and it does not get into this aspect of the struggle, understandably as the film is about Budrus, its people and their struggle, not about Israeli leftists and others. For this reason Western liberals like Kristof will likely love the film, marveling at Arabs who shockingly choose not to blow themselves up and wondering out loud how one says “Gandhi” in Arabic. Their own misunderstanding of the events of Budrus (and Gandhi!) are more to blame than Bacha but a fuller development of the characters of the film would likely have better revealed the complex dynamics in play.

The victory of a small West Bank village to move the wall a few kilometers and reclaim the vast majority of the land confiscated by Israel is an impressive enough achievement outside the context of the occupation. For those well-versed in Palestinian grassroots organizing it’s a level of achievement that is scarcely believable as the immense economic, military and political force differential between Israelis and Palestinians normally resolves local struggles to Israel’s favor. But not in Budrus. And Julia Bacha’s film truly captures this revolutionary moment and shares it with the audience.

An associate of Eugene Debs once related, “That old man with the burning eyes actually believes that there can be such a thing as the brotherhood of man. And that’s not the funniest part of it. As long as he’s around I believe it myself.” Budrus is like that.

Jimmy Johnson is a mechanic based in Detroit. He can be reached at johnson [dot] jimmy [at] gmail [dot] com.

Thursday, July 29th @ 7pm

Roxie Theatre
3117 16th Street
San Francisco, CA

The July 29^th showing of Gaza’s Winter and Gaza-Strophe at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco was a tremendous success on multiple levels. The excitement for the event built up early in the day as online sales soared leaving few tickets available for walk up purchase, resulting in a sold-out theater overflowing with latecomers lining the walls to view the films. We apologize for those who were turned away for the lack of seats. The large crowd continued on after the showing as the audience anticipated an engaging and informative discussion from panelists Paul Larudee, Nadeen Elshorafa, Jess Ghannam, and Michel Shehadeh. Fielding questions from a diverse audience, it was an opportunity to examine the impact of recent events such as Israel’s illegal storming of the Freedom Flotilla on public perception versus current reality for Gaza.  The discussion carried on late into the evening and more informally for a smaller gathering at across the street at the Morac restaurant

Arab Labor
by Shai Capon | Languages: Arabic, Hebrew, w/Eng. Subtitles

Wed, July 28 at 6:30PM
Castro Theatre, San Francisco

Sat, July 31 2010, 2:00pm
The Roda Theatre (at Berkeley Repertory Theatre)
Tickets and More info

They’re baaack! The beloved Alian family returns in season two of this delightfully provocative and wildly popular Israeli sitcom. When father Amjad moves into a Jewish neighborhood, he is mistaken for a terrorist-and an IDF soldier. Watch three new episodes fresh from the editing room and find out why we call series writer and SFJFF Freedom of Expression Award winner Sayed Kashua the Arab Israeli incarnation of Woody Allen and Dave Chapelle

My So Called Enemy
by Lisa Gossels | Languages: English

Sun, August 1 2010, 12:00pm
Cinearts @ Palo Alto

Sat, August 7 2010, 2:15pm
The Roda Theatre (at Berkeley Reperatory Theatre)
Tickets and More Info

In July 2002, 22 Israeli and Palestinian teenage girls traveled to the United States to participate in a women’s leadership program called “Building Bridges for Peace.” They were Jewish, Muslim and Christian, and many had lost friends and family in the conflict. My So-Called Enemy follows six of these young women to reveal how the experience complicated their lives and attitudes over the next seven years.

Sayed Kashua – Forever Scared
by Dorit Zimbalist | Languages: Arabic, Hebrew, w/Eng. Subtitles

Thu, July 29 2010, 3:45pm
Castro Theatre

Mon, August 2 2010, 4:00pm
The Roda Theatre (at Berkeley Repertory Theatre)
Tickets and More info

Sayed Kashua (2010 SFJFF Freedom of Expression Award winner) is a successful Israeli writer with a top-rated television comedy series, Arab Labor, but as a Palestinian citizen of Israel he’s a walking, talking existential crisis. Director Dorit Zimbalist’s fast-paced documentary makes us feel what it’s like to be a stranger in your own land.

Proceeds from this concert will go towards purchasing and shipping both western and eastern instruments to predetermined community centers selected by the Levantine Center located in Los Angeles, CA. For more information about their mission you can visit their website at www.levantinecenter.org.

Tickets and more Information
Sat. June 17th @ 8:00PM
The Warfield, SF ( 982 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94102)