GRIT, WIT AND STORIES FROM THE GROUND: THE PALESTINIAN FILM FESTIVAL AUSTRALIA RETURNS FOR ANOTHER YEAR

The Palestinian Film Festival Australia is a social impact initiative dedicated to building intercultural understanding and to promoting Palestinian art and culture in a multicultural Australian context. Showcasing the very best of Palestinian cinema from around the world, the Festival is proud to present its 2018 program filled with gripping, award-winning features, shorts and documentaries screening in Sydney (20-27 Sept), Hobart (27-30 Sept), Melbourne (4-7 Oct), Brisbane (11-14 Oct), Canberra (18-20 Oct), Perth (26-28 Oct), and Adelaide (2-4 Nov).

Naser Shakhtour, Festival Director, said, “This year’s Festival program focuses on the power of storytelling and in particular, the sharing of untold stories. Through the telling and sharing of stories, we are transported across time, place and culture and presented with new and fresh perspectives, experiences and connections.”

“Film has the power to bring people together, celebrating our common interests and shared values. These experiences are at the heart of the Palestinian Film Festival - and our privilege to be able to share these with Australian communities.”

Feature Films

• The Tower (2018) — Seventy years of disposition is portrayed through the innocent eyes of an 11-year-old girl exiled in Beirut in this deeply emotional animated feature.
• Wajib (2017) — A touching father-son comedy delving deep into generational divides, the weight of exile and the shared loss of home in this funny and devastating film.
• The Reports on Sarah & Saleem (2018) — The personal locks horns with the political when a Palestinian woman and an Israeli man begin an illicit affair at the height of the Palestine-Israel conflict in Jerusalem.

Documentaries

• What Walaa Wants (2018) — Over five years, Walaa dreams of becoming a policewoman in the Palestinian Security Forces, despite discouragement from her family and a lifetime of complicated circumstances.
• 1948: Creation and Catastrophe (2017) — Recounting the most shocking year in Palestinian history, and as the Festival’s only crowd-funded selection, this is a collection of the personal stories from veterans, refugees, survivors and historians who lived in the thick of the conflict.
• The Man Who Stole Banksy (2018) — One slip of the brush and notorious British street-artist Banksy sparks outrage when his mural of a donkey being checked by an Israeli soldier is mistaken for anti-Palestinian propaganda. An angered Palestinian taxi-driver hatches a plan to remove the mural and sell it as payback, but with little luck — instead, it begins a heated debate in the art world: is it art theft?
• Naila and the Uprising (2017) — Tracing the journey of Palestinian resistance leader, Nalia Ayesh, and exploring the major role of women in the First Intifada.

Short Film

• Salam (2018) — Struck by gnawing uncertainty, a female Lyft driver must continue her nightshift through New York City as she waits to hear life-or-death news from her family in Syria.

FESTIVAL DETAILS:
WHAT: 2018 Palestinian Film Festival Australia
WHEN: 20 September – 4 November 2018
WEBSITE:           http://palestinianfilmfestival.com.au
FACEBOOK:         https://www.facebook.com/Palestinianfilmfestival
TWITTER:            https://twitter.com/Palfilmfestival
INSTAGRAM:       https://www.instagram.com/palestinianfilmfestival
YOUTUBE:            https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9gAZTZ9KTjtE4lPfl1mOzg