Oscar-nominated director opens Arab Film Days 2018
Ziad Doueiri will open Arab Film Days with his latest film, The Insult.
We are proud to announce that Ziad Doueiri, Oscar-nominated last week, will be our main guest when Arab Film Days is held for the 8th time, April 19-22.
“This is the fourth time that my films are shown in Norway. I'm really looking forward to being with you again”, Doueiri writes in an e-mail.
The Insult (Norwegian title Fornærmelsen) was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards. The thriller-drama, focuses on a conflict between a Palestinian construction worker going up against a car mechanic who is part of a Christian political party in Lebanon.
The film soon evolves into a courtroom-drama that deals with the problematic relationship between the Christian population and Palestinian Muslims living in today’s Lebanon. It’s a highly political film opening this year’s festival, with guilt, honour and justice as its main themes, but it’s also a deeply personal story about two proud men who refuses to give up.
”The Oscar nomination is certainly a personal victory, but it is also part of a bigger picture since it is the first time Lebanon has been nominated. This film, since its release, has been the subject of vicious attacks organized by the BDS-movement, and the BDS succeeded in getting the film banned in Palestine. Being nominated to an Oscar is somehow reclaiming its legitimacy,” Doueiri continues.
Read Hollywood Reporter’s review here.
About Ziad Doueiri
Ziad Doueiri (b. 1963) is a filmmaker from Libanon. He has studied film in the US, and worked as a camera assistant on Quentin Tarantino’s films, Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction. Doueiri’s first feature is the autobiographical film West Beirut (1998), which received critical acclaim worldwide. He has also directed films like Lila Says (2004) and The Attack (2012), the latter shown on Arab Film Days in 2013.
About The Insult
The film introduces us to Tony (Adel Karam), a Lebanese Christian, who during a heated discussion pours water on the Palestinian worker and refugee, Yasser (Kamel El Basha) who tries to repair a drainpipe on Tony’s balcony. What first seems like a simple quarrel becomes a much bigger case, and soon evolves into a courtroom drama receiving national attention.
The Insult has been screened at international film festivals, and has won several awards over the last couple of months. It is a highly relevant film about today’s Beirut, and focuses on the year-long conflict between Muslims from Palestine and Christians in Lebanon.
The film is distributed by Arthaus in Norway, and will hit the cinemas later this year.