THE longed-for Palestinian state has become a reality, at least onscreen, in the Palestinian film Al-Mor wal Roman (Bitterness and the Pomegranate) being screened in Egypt. Britain, Germany and France collaborated with the Palestinians and the Kuwaitis to produce this movie. Screened two years after Al-Gana Al'an (Paradise Now), another Palestinian film directed by Hani Abu Seda, Al-Mor wal Roman is said to have broken the decades-long absence of Palestinian movies from Cairo. It has aroused the curiosity of Egyptian film buffs, despite their mixed reactions to it. Al-Mor wal Roman, which debuted at the Cairo International Film Festival late last year,is the first feature film written and directed BY Nagwa el-Nagar. Critics agree that Al-Mor wal Roman will encourage films produced by different Arab countries to hit Egyptian cinema screens and put an end to the domination of US movies and, prior to that, Indian ones. Many Arab countries have only recently got into filmmaking, but the first Palestinian movie was made back in the mid-1930s. Palestinian filmmakers shifted away from their traditional themes after Palestine fell into the hands of Israel in 1948. Since then, Palestinian filmmaking has been exploited to draw regional and international attention to the Palestinians' appalling sufferings at the hands of the Israelis. Their determination to broadcast their people's plight to the world has motivated Palestinian filmmakers to overcome their financial problems. Foreign filmmakers, convinced of the legitimacy of the Palestinian cause, helped them financially with their latest production. Al-Mor wal Roman is, predictably, about the sufferings of the Palestinian people. At the same time, the focus is on Palestinian women. Middle-aged film goers, deeply concerned about how the Palestinian problem has developedand the stalemate in the peace process, swiftly come to the conclusion that Al-Mor wal Roman is politically motivated, while teenagers are more aware of the romantic sentiments in the movie. Set in the west bank city of Ramallah in 2000, the year when the second Palestinian Intifada (Uprising) broke out, Al-Mor wal Roman is the love story of a Palestinian couple. Qamar (Yasmine el- Masri) dreams of a happy life married to Zeid (Ashraf Farah), who owns an olive orchard. But Zeid gets arrested by the Israeli army shortly after the couple tie the knot. His young wife has to come to terms with her new, upsetting reality. The couple's marriage is not even consummated. Things go from bad to worse for Qamar, when she is informed that her husband is being tortured in prison. The devastated wife then appeals to an Israeli lawyer to challenge the Israeli decision to confiscate her husband's land. There is also an ambiguous subplot: the emotionally devastated women decides to learn choreography and it's unclear whether she is unfaithful to her husband with the choreographer or not.
