Israel Matzav

A movie you may not like

I'd like to show you a trailer of a movie that you may not like. The movie is called Miral. Here is the plot from Wikipedia (it's actually based on a true story, which has been propagandized).

A chronicle of Hind Husseini's effort to establish an orphanage in Jerusalem after the 1948 partition of Palestine and the creation of the state of Israel.

Jerusalem, 1948. On her way to work, Hind Husseini (Hiam Abbass) comes across 55 orphaned children in the street. She takes them home to give them food and shelter. Within six months, 55 had grown to almost 2,000, and the Dar Al-Tifel Institute was born.

In 1978, at the age of 7, Miral (Freida Pinto) was sent to the Institute by her father following her mother's death. Brought up safely inside the Institute's walls, she is naïve to the troubles that surround her. Then, in 1988, at the age of 17, she is assigned to teach at a refugee camp where she is awakened to the reality of her people’s struggle. When she falls for Hani, a political activist, she finds herself torn between the fight for the future of her people and Mama Hind's belief that education is the road to peace.

You can probably guess to whom this movie is sympathetic....

The movie was released on September 3 at the 2010 Venice Film Festival and in France on September 15, 2010. The film was set for release (I assume it's been released by now) on December 3, 2010 in the United Kingdom, and on March 25, 2011 in the United States. That's nearly a month after Oscar. We don't know what films will be nominated yet because nominations just closed on Friday. We do know that the Golden Globe Awards were Sunday night and it didn't win anything there. But it could still win an Oscar (NOTE - The following was written in March 2010).

Miral: (No US distributor yet)

Another under the radar film. This is a real life story about a Palestinian woman who opens an orphanage in Jerusalem in 1948. It stars Freida Pinto, the darling of Slumdog Millionaire, and is helmed by Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly). Expect a lot of early critics’ awards, which should propel this film onto the Best Picture short list.

I don't know what the rules are, but this film could be eligible for awards next year, given that it's not even opening in the US until March.

And here's the trailer. Let's go to the videotape.



And the director? I'm sure you'll all be shocked to hear that he's Jewish.

Schnabel revealed that the project had relevance for his own family history; "Coming from my background, as an American Jewish person whose mother was president of Hadassah [the Women's Zionist Organisation of America] in 1948, I figured I was a pretty good person to try to tell the story of the other side."

Isn't it great how good we Jews are at taking the other side?

So what's wrong with a highly visible film that's likely to get a lot of attention (even though it may be out of the running for an Oscar) and that shows the 'Palestinians' in a favorable light? Well, let's start with Hind Husseini. Does the name sound familiar? I thought it might. She was the sister of Haj al-Amin al-Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem and a collaborator with Hitler. And she never apologized for that. And no, the movie isn't going to highlight it either.

And guess where the original 55 children in the orphanage came from? They were survivors of what Wikipedia calls the 'Deir Yassin massacre.' (There never was a 'massacre' there, but I won't get into that now). So you can bet that lie will be repeated.

The orphanage ended up in Sheikh Jarrah, directly across from what was until 2002 the 'Palestinian' headquarters in Jerusalem known as Orient House. Maybe we'll even see the nearby Shepherd's Hotel....

Do you all have a sense of where this is heading? This entire movie is one massive slander against Israel....

Labels: Deir Yassin, Hind Husseini, Miral, Orient House, Palestinian propaganda

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:30 PM