Cagliari, 19th Feb.

2011
To the attention of the press:

OBJECT: FILMS THAT HAVE BEEN PRIZED AT THE IX “AL-ARD”

PALESTINIAN AND ARAB FILM FESTIVAL IN CAGLIARI.

The IXth international film festival “Al Ard Doc Film Festival”, on Palestinian and
Arab documentaries, ended on the 19th February. For the first time the Association
Friendship Sardinia-Palestine has decided to turn the film show into a film festival,
awarding four prizes and one special mention. A wide turnout of the public
accompanied the projection of 32 films on Palestine and on the Arab world (26 of
which run for the competition and the remaining 6 were out of the competition). The
jury, which evaluated the good quality of films, was composed of Antonello Zanda,
film critic, Felice Tiragallo, visual anthropologist, Monica Maurer, film-maker,
Ibrahim Nasrallah, Palestinian poet and Giuseppe Pusceddu, artistic director of the
festival.

The prize for the best documentary was awarded to Gaza Hospital by the Italian film-
maker Marco Pasquini (The prize has been awarded to: Gaza hospital by Marco
Pasquini for representing with a solid film language the history of Palestinian
refugees in Beirut and the tragedy of Sabra and Shatila, by highlighting the episode
of the Gaza hospital as an architectural metaphor for the problems of an entire
population. The walls, everyday gestures of the people as well as the streets all
become witnesses of a collective memory that the film revives in the screen generating
a strong emotion).

The Al-Ard prize for the best Palestinian documentary was awarded to Samir
Abdallah and Kheridine Farouk’s film Gaza…Strophe (The prize has been awarded
to: Gaza... Strophe by Samir Abdallah and Kheridine Mabrouk for denouncing the
war crimes committed during the operation “Cast Lead” in Gaza during the winter of
2008/2009. The film was awarded this prize for using a poetic film language to give
voice to a population that does not want to lose its own roots).

The prize for the best emerging film-director was awarded ex-aequo to two films:
This is my Land… Hebron by Giulia Amati and Stephen Natanson (The prize has
been awarded to This is my Land... Hebron by Giulia Amati and Stephen Natanson
for its ability to make tangible the wall of hatred that surrounds Palestinians in the
city of Hebron. It did so by showing directly the everyday flow of factual hostilities
expressed by the colonists, the fanaticism contained in their talk, the acquiescence
showed by the army to those hostilities and the worries of Israeli society. The film
places Hebron’s tragedy at the centre of the occupied lands’ struggle, where the
Palestinian willingness to resist in that city emerges fully); A New Day Has Com by
Emiliano Sacchetti (The prize has also been awarded to A New Day Has Com by
Emiliano Sacchetti, for managing to describe the happenings in the refugees camp of
Al Tanf located between Iraq and Syria, and also for managing to recount with
spontaneity and determination the destiny of a population whose existence is being
denied. The photography and the testimony of the protagonists strike the public for
their ability to raise strong feelings of empathy and involvement).

Special mention from the jury goes to the film Inshallah Beijing! by Francesco
Cannito and Luca Cusani (Inshallah Beijing by Francesco Cannito and Luca Cusani
managed to present a different project by turning a documentary into a dramatic film,
by presenting unusual characters in a difficult everyday Palestinian context. The
Palestinian team which runs for the Olympics had to compete without having any
logistical possibilities, no gyms nor instruments which all other competing teams
could count on. Nevertheless the members of the team insist dreaming on making
their way to the realisation of their objective, although they are well aware of the
distance between them and their dream).

And finally the prize of the public goes to This is my land… Hebron by Giulia Amati
and Stephen Natanson

Association Friendship Sardinia-Palestine

Via Montesanto 28, Cagliari
For further information, please contact Dr. Fawzi Ismail at: +39 338 6166 944.