This year marks the tenth anniversary of the South East European Film Festival, and the opening night celebrates Romanian cinema, a country whose films have been much-lauded over the past decade as part of a Romanian New Wave. Often tackling harsh subjects with unsparing realism, usually in long takes, these films have helped bring a greater critical spotlight to South East Europe. This movement is reflected not only in Romanian features, but in the short films as well: Fish Tank employs one long take to tell the story of strained familial relationships, and the thought-provoking film, Art, daringly toes a…
Author: Dina Abou Salem
An opening scene takes us to the chastity of lush groves amidst sunny Palestinian farmlands and the innocence of an 11 year old Yousef (Qusai Abu-Eid) swaying along the rhythms of percussion and buzuq on a tug of war play with his pet gazelle—an act his father had uncompromisingly instructed against. Suddenly, the innocence of nature and child is overcome with the shame of guilt, taking the viewer on a brief 15-minute ride of a much longer journey in the mind of Yousef—a child who discovers for the first time the power of conscience and the exigency to assume responsibility…