Rana’s Wedding - Hany Abu-Assad

una mezza giornata a Gerusalemme, in un film d'amore e di oppressione (e che oppressione!), di ribellione e di sorrisi e pianti, una corsa contro il tempo, un aria da nouvelle vague, un po' neorealista.
un matrimonio di gioia e liberazione.
un gioiellino da non perdere.
se la storia d'amore e il sorriso di Rana vi prendono il cuore non siete soli, non è grave.
i due (promessi) sposi, Clara Khoury e Khalifa Natour, li avrete già visti in alcuni bei film, o li rincontrerete da qualche parte.
buona imperdibile visione - Ismaele

QUI il film completo, con sottotitoli in inglese

Girando gli esterni a Gerusalemme Est, a Ramallah e a un posto di blocco interposto, il regista palestinese Hany Abu-Assad osserva il conflitto palestinese-israeliano attraverso gli occhi di una giovane donna, la quale, con solo dieci ore per sposarsi, deve decidere il suo avvenire tra blocchi stradali, soldati, lanciatori di sassi, funzionari affaticati…..e il cuore di un innamorato incerto.

Questo film esplora opportunamente l’amore tra le rovine dei Territori Occupati…..

Secondo Abu-Assad, “Quando l’anormalità delle barriere e dell’occupazione diviene una realtà quotidiana, una cosa normale come un matrimonio si trasforma in un’opera di fantasia. Attualmente, questa è la vita in Palestina…….. Vorrei cambiarla attraverso il cinema.

da qui

Rana's father is going to the airport at 4 p.m., and she can either get married, or leave the country with him. He supplies her with a list of eligible bachelors who have asked for her hand in marriage. But she is in love with Khalil. Can she find him, ask him to marry her, find a registrar, get her hair done, gather the relatives and get married -- all before 4 o'clock?

This could be the description of a Hollywood romantic comedy. And indeed it is a romantic comedy of sorts, as romance and comedy survive in the midst of the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis. The movie takes place on both sides of the armed border separating Jerusalem and the Palestinian settlement of Ramallah, and although the comedy occupies the foreground, the background is dominated by checkpoints and armed soldiers, street funerals and little boys throwing rocks, bulldozers tearing down buildings and a general state of siege…

…The movie is passable as a story but fascinating as a document. It gives a more complete visual picture of the borders, the Palestinian settlements and the streets of Jerusalem than we ever see on the news, and we understand that the Palestinians are not all suicide bombers living in tents, as the news sometimes seems to imply, but in many cases middle-class people like Rana and her circle, sharing the same abilities and aspirations as their neighbors. I think the point is to show how their conditions of life are like a water torture, breaking them down a drop at a time, reminding them that having lived in this place for a long time, they are nevertheless homeless.

da qui

… Rana’s Wedding is a powerful Palestinian film directed by Hany Abu-Assad that posits love as the only valid antidote to fear in a tense environment of anger, rage, death, destruction. The closing scenes beautifully reveal how a slender thread of hope can be nourished in the hearts of those who participate in the universal rituals that affirm life, renewal, and meaning.

da qui