Palestine
DVD: Night Will FallFriday, 06 February 2015The quotation from which this film’s title is taken runs thus: “Unless the world learns the lessons these pictures teach, night will fall.” It’s drawn from the voiceover of a documentary called German Concentration Camps: Factual Survey that was... Read more... |
DVD: When I Saw YouFriday, 29 August 2014Like its title, this film is surprisingly open in its capacity for possibility. It's ironic that this blossoming branch – When I Saw You – is set in the stilted habitat of a refugee camp in Jordan. It’s a sweet film that gets to the heart of the... Read more... |
Opinion: The Tricycle were right over the UK Jewish Film FestivalFriday, 08 August 2014Imagine an industrial disaster that manages to kill, maim or make homeless a significant percentage of the population of a densely populated city. Then imagine the effects of that disaster for years to come: the catastrophic physical and... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Pianist Saleem and Violinist Nabeel Abboud AshkarSunday, 03 August 2014Saleem (born 1976), having dropped the "Abboud" from his name, is one of the world’s most individual top pianists: his recent disc of Mendelssohn concertos with Riccardo Chailly and the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester is bound to make my “best of year”... Read more... |
Prom 4: World Orchestra for Peace, GergievMonday, 21 July 2014This was a rare outing by the World Orchestra for Peace, which has performed fewer than 20 concerts since the death of its founder Sir Georg Solti in 1997. UNESCO had designated this BBC Prom as "The 2014 Concert for Peace", the definite article... Read more... |
The Honourable Woman, BBC TwoFriday, 04 July 2014Janet McTeer has admitted that she had to read Hugo Blick's screenplay for The Honourable Woman three times before she could understand what was going on. Therefore anybody hoping to drop into this as a casual viewer can expect to find the learning... Read more... |
When I Saw YouFriday, 06 June 2014Palestinian director Annemarie Jacir excels at catching both individuality of character and wider background context in her second feature, When I Saw You. The initial background is a refugee camp in Jordan in 1967, where displaced families arrive... Read more... |
10 Questions for Director Annemarie JacirTuesday, 03 June 2014In 2007 Annemarie Jacir made her debut feature, Salt of This Sea, the first film directed by a Palestinian woman director. Her follow-up, When I Saw You, is released this week in the UK, after festival acclaim that saw it receive prizes at... Read more... |
Prom 34: Nigel Kennedy, Palestine Strings, the Orchestra of LifeFriday, 09 August 2013There had been a buzz of anticipation about this late-night Prom by Nigel Kennedy, the Palestine Strings and his Orchestra of Life, and it was completely sold out. After a long association with Vivaldi's Four Seasons, and 2.4 million sales of the... Read more... |
5 Broken CamerasTuesday, 16 October 2012A story of six years of conflict in the West Bank set against more timeless details of life in the Palestinian town of Bil’in, 5 Broken Cameras brings the reality of resistance to the expansion of Israeli settlements – a conflict between unarmed... Read more... |
Globe to Globe: Richard II, Shakespeare's GlobeSunday, 06 May 2012Mention that a Palestinian theatre company are performing Richard II and the play’s themes are immediately thrown into sharp relief: usurpation, homeland and banishment, and the idea of a literally God-given mandate to rule amongst a resistant... Read more... |
Empire, BBC OneTuesday, 28 February 2012The scene is ineffably English. The thock of mallet on ball, the clack of ball through hoop, the gentle sun adding a benediction. A senior gent in natty English threads looks on from the pavilion, a member of this club for 55 years. Everything is... Read more... |