RAMALLAH, April 22, 2013 (WAFA) – A Palestinian short film was one of nine films selected from among 3500 short films from 132 countries to compete at the Cannes Film Festival scheduled for May 26, according to the Cannes Film Festival website.
Condom Lead, a production of the Gaza-based Made in Palestine Project, is the first Palestinian short film to compete in this prestigious film festival.
The film’s title, Condom Lead, is an ironic play on the name of the 2008-2009 Israel Cast Lead military offensive on Gaza.
The reason for giving the film this title was to represent the situation and war in Gaza from a rather new approach, said a press release by the producers.
“Instead of treating the conflict through the spectacle of death, however, Condom Lead takes a subtler, more enigmatic approach: it imagines war through the lens of marital lovemaking – or, rather, the lack thereof,” said the press release.
The 14-minute Palestinian film is written and directed by the twin brothers, Mohammad and Ahmad Abu Nasser (known as Tarzan and Arab). It is based on an idea by Gaza filmmaker Khalil al-Mozayen and starring first-time actors Rashid Abdelhamid and his wife, Maria Mohammedi.
Condom Lead, featuring zero spoken dialogue or music, is based completely on image and background noise to transmit a universal vignette of what becomes of ordinary passions between a man and a woman in the interstices of war’s heightened reality.
The Gaza directors, Tarzan and Arab, said the film “is a story that could happen anywhere – anywhere there is, ever has been, or ever will be war; anywhere there is a man and a woman and a room.’
‘In Gaza, just like any place under siege, love making, perhaps the most essential mode of human connection, has to be jettisoned for more pressing concerns,’ said the twins.
The film’s tagline is: ‘A dream of the hope for intimacy and love in a brutal, divisive world.’
Condom Lead producer and actor Rashid Abdelhamid said that the main purpose behind the film is to “change the perception of Palestine, and Gaza in particular, by countering the dehumanizing image that results from its constant portrayal through the eyes of crossfire and death.’
Made in Palestine Project is an independent production company founded by Abdelhamid to create and promote arts from Palestine.
Palestinian movies have competed before at Cannes in other categories, including ‘Wedding in Galilee’ (1987), which won the International Critics Prize, and ‘Divine Intervention’ (2002), which won the Jury Prize and was nominated for the Palm d’Or.
