Sunday, September 18, 2016, 2:00 p.m. The Little Theatre, #5 240 East Ave Rochester, NY 14604 Film maker: Documentarian Mai Masri, winner of many international prizes. Film Type: Documentary / Drama / Narrative feature film Length & Language: 103 min., in Arabic and Hebrew Production companies: Nour Prods., Orjouane Prods., Les Films d’Ici
A Palestinian woman’s random good deed leads to her arrest and imprisonment, a feature that illustrates the plight of political prisoners in Israel through one character’s experience. The story begins in 1980 Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, with the brutal, middle-of-the-night arrest of newly married schoolteacher Layal. Her crime: giving a ride to a teenage boy who’s accused of executing a lethal attack on a military checkpoint. Refusing to claim that the boy threatened her with violence, she’s sentenced to eight years in a prison that houses both Palestinians (political prisoners) and Israelis (convicted criminals).
All the women in the film – Israelis as well as Palestinians – are played by Palestinians, some who live in Israel, some from the occupied West Bank and others who live as refugees in Jordan or Lebanon. The experience of Israeli jails is part of all their lives – often from childhood glimpses of brothers or fathers in the dehumanizing circumstances that mark jail visits under Red Cross auspices still today. The dilemma Layal faces, with its personal and political repercussions, is the most emotionally gripping part of the narrative. But the documentary footage that closes 3000 Nights has far more impact.
Source: HollywoodReporter.com
Panelist Hana Chamoun
Hana Chamoun is a Lebanese/Palestinian actress and director based in New York, currently training at the Lee Strasberg Theater and Film Institute. She graduated in Communication Arts and Psychology from the Lebanese American University in Beirut. Hana acted in two feature films: ‘In The Shadows of the City’ (2000) and ‘3000 Nights’ (2015). She has also directed several short films and plays. She is interested in Drama Therapy and has been involved in workshops and volunteer work in Palestine and Lebanon.
Hana will join us at The Little Theatre.