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Showing posts from November, 2014

ARAB SPRING OF CINEMA

Meenakshi Rao  tells you how global film-makers, much away from the box office syndrome, are cutting in potent cinema with stunning footage from the heart of conflict zones all over the world, but how it’s a sad struggle for them to get the budgets required for garnering global eyeballs for their history-making efforts The brilliant romantic thriller  Omar  nearly did not make it to India. But thanks to its producer-actor Waleed Zuaiter, a Palestinian who plays an Israeli agent in the film, this haunting feature from the conflict driven West Bank region showed up at the recent Dharamshala International Film Festival (DIFF) on a blue ray DVD. Zuaiter had sent it over from his personal collection after the film’s sales department said it could come here only on a format not available in India. It is a stunning movie of betrayal at all levels — personal, emotional, political and existential — identifying with the plight of the Palestinian refugees of over six decades. Brilliantly we