Scene from the film “In Between”
“In Between”, Palestinian director Maysaloun Hamoud’s first feature film, was released in French cinemas in mid-April.
Although the film has been praised by international critics and won awards at several festivals (Haifa, San Sebastian, Toronto), this has not prevented the 35-year-old Palestinian film-maker, born in Budapest and raised in Dir-Hana, Israel, from receiving death threats when the film was released. A fatwa was made against her by fundamentalists and the film was banned in the conservative West Bank village Umm al-Fahm.
Co-produced by Israeli and French companies (DBG and En compagnie des Lamas), the film is about three young Palestinian women sharing a flat in Tel Aviv. The director hopes the film gives “a voice to a whole generation” – to the young Israeli Arabs, descendants of the Palestinians who remained on their land when Israel was created in 1948. Today they feel neither Israeli nor Palestinian. Her film is also about the condition and oppression of Palestinian women. The three characters have liberated themselves from certain rules but at the same time are subjected to the over-bearing weight of their country’s customs.
Sources: Cineuropa, Culturebox, le Monde
Maysaloun Hamoud
