Palestine under the British Mandate. The backdrop is a shifting world that will lead to the start of World War II. Our story is told over four years 1935 – 38, though not always chronologically. Our characters are fictional, but the historic reference factual.
Annemarie Jacir has written, directed and produced over sixteen films. Two of her films have premiered as Official Selections in Cannes, one in Berlin and in Venice, Locarno, Rotterdam and Telluride. All three of her feature films were selected as Palestine’s Oscar Entry for Foreign Language Film. Her short film like twenty impossibles (2003) was the first Arab short film in history to be an official selection of the Cannes Film Festival and continued to break ground when it went on to be a finalist for the Academy Awards. Her second work to debut in Cannes, the acclaimed Salt of this Sea, went on to win the FIPRESCI Critics Award, and garnered fourteen other international awards including Best Film in Milan. Her second feature When I Saw You won Best Asian Film at the Berlinale, Best Arab Film in Abu Dhabi and Best Film in Amiens, Phoenix, and Olympia, and garnered a nomination at the Asian Pacific Screen Awards.
In 2011, renown Chinese director Zhang Yimou selected her to be his first protégée as part of the Rolex Arts Initiative. With a commitment to teaching, training and hiring locally, Annemarie also curates, actively promoting independent cinema in the region. Founder of Philistine Films, she collaborates regularly as an editor, screenwriter and producer with fellow filmmakers. She teaches screenwriting and works as a freelance editor as well as consultant. Her most recent film Wajib (2017) won 36 international awards including Best Film in Mar Del Plata, Dubai, Amiens, DC Film Festival and Kerala and jury mention at the London BFI Festival.
Jacir co-founded Philistine Films, an independent production company, focusing on productions related to the Arab world and has been involved in numerous productions.
She is a member of the Asian Pacific Screen Academy and a board member of Palestine Cinema Days. She has taught at Columbia University, Bethlehem University, and Birzeit University and in refugee camps in Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan. Annemarie is also a mentor for eQuinoxe Screenwriting Lab and Doha Film Institute. In 2018, she was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She has served as jury member to numerous festivals including on the Un Certain Regard Jury of the Cannes Film Festival and the Competition Jury for Berlinale. She is cofounder of the newly established artist-run space Dar Yusuf Nasri Jacir for Art & Research in her hometown of Bethlehem, Palestine.
Palestine
