Best Direction FESTIVAL DU FILM DE STRASBOURG 2010
Special Mention 2010 SHORT FILM FESTIVAL OF LOS ANGELES
Integral Realization 2010 SAN FRANCISCO SHORT FILM FESTIVAL
Mejor Fotografia FESTIVAL DE CINE INTERNACIONAL DE BARCELONA 2010
Official Selection 2010 CHICAGO SHORT FILM FESTIVAL
Submitted for the FESTIVAL DE CINE DE GRANADA 2011
Director: Max Francos Producer: Max Francos Writer: Max Francos Genre: documentary-experimental-art film Country: Spain Duration: 40' Original Format: 35m/m Photography: Max Francos Editing: Katy Reyes
Synopsis of the Film: NAKBA : arabic word meaning « disaster ». It describes the most tragic event in the history of Palestinian people, driven from their land during the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. The movie was shot in an ancient palestinian refugee camp called « Ein El Sultan » and an ancient jordanian military camp, both located near the city of Jericho in Cisjordania. Ein El Sultan was initially built to give a shelter to the Palestinians thrown out of their lands and homes after the division of Palestine into two different countries : Israel and Palestine. After the « Six-Day War » in 1967, Israel annexed Cisjordania. The inhabitants of the camp are forced to exile again to other refugee camps In Lebanon, Jordania, Syria. The ancient jordanian military base is occupied by the Israelian army and used as a training camp against the new kind of war emerging : the Intifada. From the prehistorical paintings, mankind has always imprinted History on its walls, leaving a visual heritage of its existence. The walls of both camps are covered with drawings, paintings and graffitis, telling a story of conquerors and conquered. Like the archeologist, the movie decifers the iconography of the signs engraved and fossilized on the walls, by scratching them in order to reveal their memory. The drawings and graffitis on the walls of both refugee and military camps are all original. Untouched, unchanged, filmed as they belonged initially to the locations. Later on, the refugee camp was totally destroyed. The Israelian army feared to see the camp becoming a symbol of resistance for the Palestinian people. As a painter, I privileged the pictural esthetics rather the « political speech ». The music, the poetry and the painting of Palestinian people compose the colors of my « palette ». "There is a thing stronger than all the armies of the world it is an idea from which time came" (Victor Hugo).
Annual Program Without Frontiers - Nakba
