This Week in Palestine - Events
Issue no. 16  - September 1999

Events (01 Sept. - 15 Sept.)


Jerusalem

Ramallah & Al-Bireh
Gaza Strip

Reviews of main events
 
  • Film: The Name of the Rose (Dir. Jean- Jacques Arnaud, 124 min., color, English)
  • Based on Umberto Eco's award-winning best setter by the same title, it is a chilling tale of darkdeeds and murderous mayhem within the shadowy cloisters and forbidding battlements of a medieval monastery. One monk has fallen to his death. Or was he pushed? Another is discovered in a pool of pig's blood. The lifeless body of a third is found in his bath. Is it the work of the Devil… or some more earthly assassin? Al-Bireh, Monday 06 September, Sunday 12 September, 19:30, Popular Art Center.

     
  • Film: Good Will Hunting (Dir. Gus Van Zant, 121 min., color, English)
  • The most brilliant mind at America's top university isn't a professor… he's Will Hunting, a headstrong, penniless guy failing the lessons of life and love with a wealthy girlfriend. Facing a jail sentence after one too many run-ins with the law, Will's fate is in the hands of his therapist, who might be the only man able to help him see his true potential. Al-Bireh, Saturday 04 September, 11 September, 19:30, Popular Art Center.

     
  • Film: The Sweet Hereafter (Dir. Atom Egoyan, 113 min., color, English)
  • Following a tragic school bus accident, high profile lawyer Mitchell Stephens descends upon a small town. With promises of retribution and a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of the grieving community, Stephens begins his investigation into the details of the crash. But beneath the town's calm, he uncovers a tangled web of lies, deceit, and forbidden desires that mirrors his own troubled personal life. Gradually, we learn that Stephens has his own agenda, and that everyone has secrets to keep. Al-Bireh, Monday 13 September, 19:30, Popular Art Center.

     
  • Film: Romeo and Juliet (USA 1997, Dir. Baz Luhrmann, 115 min., colour, English)
  • Baz Luhrmann's dazzling and unconventional adaptation of William Shakespeare's classic love story is spellbinding. Leonardo di Caprio and Claire Danes portray Romeo and Juliet, the youthful star-crossed lovers of the past. But the setting has been moved from its Elizabethan origins to futuristic urban backdrop of Verona beach. Al-Bireh, Sunday 05 September, and Wednesday 15 September, 19:30, Popular Art Center.

     
  • Film: The Champ (USA 1979, Dir. Franco Zeffirelli, 118 min., color, Eng.)
  • The Champ is an incisive deeply moving exploration into the arena of the greatest conflict - the human heart. The story concerns a broken marriage and inevitable effect on a mother, a father, and a child. Jon Voight is magnificent as Billy, an ex-boxing champion, managing to support his son and continually train for the comeback that never quite comes off. His son T.J. anxiously awaits the day when the Camp will once again dominate the ring. The custody struggle with the ex-wife, Annie, sparks a battle that continues until the champ finally returns to the ring, where he wins and loses. Al-Bireh, Tuesday 07 September, 19:30, Popular Art Center.

     
  • Film: Some Mother's Son (UK 1996, Dir. Terry George, 107 min., color, English)
  • A widowed teacher and life-long pacifist, Kathleen Quigley is shaken out of her comfortable existence when her son is captured after a shoot-out with the British Army. Along with Annie Higgins, mother of another prisoner, Kathleen finds herself suddenly brought into the middle of Northern Ireland's political conflict, forced to the center of an epic struggle when their sons are prepared to die for their beliefs… are mothers prepared to just stand by and watch? Al-Bireh, Wednesday 08 September and Tuesday 14 September, 19:30, Popular Art Center.
     

    Play of the Week
     
    Back Street Stories
    Theatre Day Productions, Gaza, 1999
    Director: Jan Williams
    Written by: Jackie Lubeck
    Actors: Rami Salmeh, Mohammad Abu Kweik, Mohammad Hamdan, Nahid Hanouna, and Yusri Maghari.

    The play is a collection of some 50 stories, brought forward by the acting team, now in their third year of training. They play the roles of 5 boys, clever and street-wise, best friends, and raised on slaps, smacks, punches, kicks, and hot peppers. Tough but sweet, they spend their day sharing secrets and dreams, laughing, fighting, and making up again. If there is any message in this play it is that friendship is one of the most important human values that we have, and that it is a value that we must all come to respect, for the future of this country, and perhaps for the future of humankind.

    "Back Street Stories" was produced in cooperation with the Gaza Municipality and the Holst Cultural Center where Theatre Day Productions run the theatre department. Performances all through September and October in Gaza.

     
    [Back to contents]

    Jerusalem Media & Communication Centre (JMCC),
    PO Box 25047, East Jerusalem, Palestine
    Tel. 972-2-5819777, Fax. 972-2-5829534
    E-mail: ptw@jmcc.org