CinemaNA - Wajib Screening

Presented by Paris-Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi and NYU Abu Dhabi

Tuesday, Apr 10 @ 7:30 pm

Past Event

This year’s Palestinian Oscar entry, Wajib is a heart- warming story of the rediscovery and reconciliation of a troubled father-son relationship. Written and Directed by internationally acclaimed Annemarie Jacir (When I Saw You).

Abu Shadi is a divorced father and a school teacher in his mid-sixties living in Nazareth. After his daughter’s wedding, in one month, he will be living alone. Shadi, his architect son, arrives from Rome after years abroad to help his father with delivering the wedding invitations to each guest, in hand, as per local Palestinian custom. As the estranged pair spend the day together, the tense details of their relationship come to a head challenging their fragile and very different lives.

Biography

Palestinian filmmaker Annemarie Jacir has written, directed and produced over sixteen films. 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 Un Certain Regard, the critically acclaimed SALT OF THIS SEA (2008), garnered fourteen international awards, including the FIPRESCI Critics Award. It was the first feature film directed by a Palestinian woman and Palestine’s 2008 Oscar Entry for Foreign Language Film.

WHEN I SAW YOU won, among other awards, Best Asian Film at the 63rd Berlin Intl Film Festival and Best Arab Film in Abu Dhabi FF. It was also Palestine’s 2012 Oscar Entry. Notably, the film’s production was entirely Arab‑financed with all Palestinian producers marking a new trend in Arab cinema. W_AJIB_ is her third feature film. It won multiple awards including the Don Quixote Award At Locarno Film Festival, The Muhr Award at Dubai International Film Festival, and Best Film Award at Kerala International Film Festival.

English Subtitles
Followed by online Q&A with the director
Written and Directed by: Annemarie Jacir
Produced by: Ossama Bawardi
Genre: Drama