2007年VOA标准英语-Palestinian Film Festival Opens in London

By Tendai Maphosa
London
30 April 2007

The third-annual Palestinian Film Festival is underway in London. For VOA Tendai Maphosa speaks to one of the participating directors who says even under extreme conditions, people get on with life.

The two-week festival features more than 40 films made by Palestinian directors, some of whom are based in Palestinian territories and others in the diaspora.

Najwa Najjar is based in Ramallah and her award winning short film Yasmine's Song was one of those screened on the opening night. She told VOA that there is a budding film industry, but film making is not easy for Palestinians.

 

"There is a lot of logistics that have to be done. For example Jericho was closed. It was a military area before we were about to shoot, so it made it very difficult for us to plan properly. We have some people who come from Israel proper, Palestinians who live there, people from the West Bank and people from Jerusalem," she said.  "Each one has a different color of ID so they can go on some roads, they cannot go on other roads, and they can enter here and they cannot enter here. All of this and the security, we were shooting next to the wall soldiers can come at any time, they can stop you at any time, and we were threatened," added Najjar.

Palestinians gather in front of the Ramallah Cultural Palace to attend the opening ceremony of the Ramallah Film Festival (File)

 Money is also a major problem, Najjar said. She said for the government, faced with more pressing issues such as providing just the basics for the people, funding the film industry is not a priority.

She says funds from foreign donors², while welcome, mostly come with certain conditions. One of these is that the donor¹ country will provide some production personnel. Najjar said while this is understandable, it impedes³ growth for the Palestinian film industry.

 

The films cover various themes, but Najjar agreed that they never stray too far from the political issues facing the Palestinians and the region in general. "Yasmine's Song" for instance is about two young lovers who, besides facing traditional hurdles⁴ in their relationship, came up against an extra, physical, barrier when a wall that divides Israel and the West Bank was constructed.

 

While the film industry in Israel is more developed, Najjar dismissed the option of any co-productions with Israeli filmmakers.

 

"Not at the moment. There is a cultural boycott⁵. We cannot deal culturally as if everything is normal when politically nothing is normal," she said. "At the end cultural cooperation is not going to bring about the end of occupation, but the end of occupation can bring about cultural cooperation"

 

Politics may be in the way of speedier development of a Palestinian film industry, but the London Festival is a chance for filmmakers to show they can make good movies, even under less than ideal conditions.

1 donor   

n.捐献者；赠送人；(组织、器官等的)供体

参考例句：

• In these cases,the recipient usually takes care of the donor afterwards.在这类情况下，接受捐献者以后通常会照顾捐赠者。
• The Doctor transplanted the donor's heart to Mike's chest cavity.医生将捐赠者的心脏移植进麦克的胸腔。

2 donors   

n.捐赠者( donor的名词复数 )；献血者；捐血者；器官捐献者

参考例句：

• Please email us to be removed from our active list of blood donors. 假如你想把自己的名字从献血联系人名单中删去，请给我们发电子邮件。
• About half this amount comes from individual donors and bequests. 这笔钱大约有一半来自个人捐赠及遗赠。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 impedes   

阻碍，妨碍，阻止( impede的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• High packing density greatly impedes the cooling of the array. 高存贮密度很不利于阵列的散热。
• The inflexibility of the country's labor market seriously impedes its economic recovery. 该国劳工市场缺乏灵活性，这严重阻碍了它的经济恢复。

4 hurdles   

n.障碍( hurdle的名词复数 )；跳栏；（供人或马跳跃的）栏架；跨栏赛

参考例句：

• In starting a new company, many hurdles must be crossed. 刚开办一个公司时，必须克服许多障碍。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• There are several hurdles to be got over in this project. 在这项工程中有一些困难要克服。 来自辞典例句

5 boycott   

n./v.(联合)抵制，拒绝参与

参考例句：

• We put the production under a boycott.我们联合抵制该商品。
• The boycott lasts a year until the Victoria board permitsreturn.这个抗争持续了一年直到维多利亚教育局妥协为止。