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The Fabulous Picture Show has been following the progress of Palestinian writer/director Najwa Najjar for the past three years as she has attempted to launch her first feature film, Pomegranates & Myrrh.
And now, with the film finally complete and ready for international release, Najwa joins us for a Q&A session with entertainment editor Amanda Palmer and the FPS audience.
In Pomegranates & Myrrh, a drama shot in the Palestinian Territories, a woman finds herself torn by her feelings for two different men.
Talented dancer Kamar (Yasmine Elmasri of Caramel) has just married the man of her dreams, Zaid (Ashraf Farah).
However their honeymoon is short-lived when he is arrested by Israeli forces after refusing to give up his land, which is being confiscated.
When Zaid is sent to prison, Kamar finds escape from her loneliness through dance classes.
But when handsome choreographer Kais, played by Ali Sliman from Paradise Now, joins the dance studio, Kamar is forced to choose between loyalty to her husband and someone who can give her the love she craves.
Najwa Najjar has worked in both documentary and fiction genres. Pomegranates & Myrrh won the Amiens Scriptwriting Award and was included in Sundance's Middle East Screenwriters Lab and the Mediterranean Films Crossing Borders workshop in Cannes.
Hailed as being the first truly Palestinian production, Najwa discusses why it was important to make her film especially in light of the recent war on Gaza.
Happy Tears
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| Demi Moore and Parker Posey in Mitchell Lichtenstein's Happy Tears |
Rather than deny the heritage of his father, the famous pop artist Roy Lichtenstein, director Mitchell Lichtenstein embraces it with the title of his latest film, which is based on one of his father's most famous paintings.
Happy Tears, a hit at this year's Berlin Film Festival, is about a pair of mismatched sisters who reunite when their father becomes unable to care for himself.
It stars a dream cast: As the sisters, Hollywood queen Demi Moore and independent film princess Parker Posey. And as the father, one of acting's most ferocious and respected long-time talents, Rip Torn.
Amanda Palmer speaks to Lichtenstein, Moore and Posey.
Milk of Sorrow
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| Milk of Sorrow, winner of the Golden Bear at this year's Berlin Film Festival |
The top prize at this year's Berlin Film Festival went to a film from a country that not only had not won the prize before, but had never even been in competition.
Milk of Sorrow, directed by Claudia Llosa, is one of the most prominent films ever to come out of Peru.
The title refers to a folk affliction suffered by women who were victims of rape during Peru's years of guerrilla warfare in the 1980s and 1990s - their mother's milk supposedly became bitter, thus passing on the sorrow to the next generation.
We hear about this from Llosa, who also happens to be the niece of Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa, and also speak to the film's lead actor, Magaly Solier, a nonprofessional actor whom Llosa discovered.
This episode of The Fabulous Picture Show can be seen from Thursday, July 02, at the following times GMT: Thursday: 0600 and 1630; Friday: 0130, 0830; Saturday: 1130 and 2330; Sunday: 0630 and 2030; Monday: 1430; Tuesday: 1930; Wednesday: 0300.
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