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THE
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Israeli Arab actor Adam Bakri (Omar) earned a bachelor's degree in English
literature and theater arts at Tel Aviv University and then trained at New
York's Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute.
Oscar authorities
use U.N. protocol to
label Omar a film
from "Palestine."
Debra Kamin
Times
of Israel
I
W
hen the Academy of Motion
Pictures nominated Hany
Abu-Assad's Omar for Best
Foreign Film and declared the movie a
product of Palestine, they joined the slew
of international organizations granting
the nation de facto recognition, despite
the fact that it has yet to be legally born.
And this time around, Israeli officials
aren't fighting it.
It was a move that came as little
surprise to the film's supporters, who
have, since its inception, launched a
deep-trenched grassroots campaign to
make Omar the first truly Palestinian
movie. Abu-Assad, a child of Nazareth
who carries an Israeli passport but left
the Middle East for the Netherlands
(where he also holds a passport) at
the age of 19, is a fervent supporter of
Palestinian nationhood.
He was furious in 2006 when his
earlier film Paradise Now, the first-ever
Palestinian movie to receive an Academy
Award nomination, was billed as a prod-
uct of "the Palestinian Territories" rather
than "Palestine" after a steamrolling
campaign by a slew of Israeli officials.
Then-consul general Ehud Danoch
and then-consul for media and public
affairs Gilad Millo put pressure on the
Academy following that year's Golden
Globes ceremony, where Paradise Now
won Best Foreign Film and was billed as a
movie from Palestine.
They succeeded, partly by invoking the
formality that a film's nation of origin is
determined in part by where its funding
originates. Paradise Now, like many films
from the region, was co-produced with
funds from several European nations.
So this time around, the producers
of Omar weren't taking any chances.
From the moment Abu-Assad com-
pleted his script — about Omar, a young
Palestinian baker (played by Adam
Saturday March 1, at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday March 2, at 2:30 p.m.
Bakri) forced into becoming a collabo-
rator for Israel — his team launched
a grassroots effort throughout the
Palestinian diaspora to make the movie
the first-ever, full-length feature film
funded entirely by Palestinian dollars.
They weren't completely successful.
A chunk of the change for the produc-
tion came from the Dubai International
Film Festival's Enjaaz Fund. But with
Palestinian-American actor Waleed
Zuaiter at the movement's helm, they
raised nearly $2 million, enough to
finance the production, through a
network of micro-donations from
Palestinians around the world.
"We reached out to everyone [for fund-
ing]; Zuaiter told Variety. "Like, if you
were one-eighth Palestinian, we came to
you; for us, there were no borders."
Their strategy appears to have worked
— not a single Israeli official has raised
an issue with the Academy's wording
this year. "It's a Palestinian-Israeli movie,
but he would like to define it:' said Ofra
Ben Yaakov, an official in the Foreign
Ministry's cultural affairs department,
about Abu-Assad. "It's not my job to
declare it for him:'
Omar, which won the Jury Prize at
the Cannes Film Festival, was filmed in
both the Israeli city of Nazareth and the
Palestinian West Bank, with some Israeli
Arabs among its cast; the nationality of
its locations is as complex and mired in
global politics as that of its director.
But the Academy Awards is a cel-
ebration of motion pictures and not of
politics, so don't expect any Palestinian
flags or slogans attached to this year's
event. Aside from the name coming out
of some shimmering presenters' lips,
very little will be different from the 2006
awards, when Abu-Assad also walked the
red carpet in hopes of a trophy.
The Academy, for its part, says there
is no political motive behind its deci-
sion to declare Palestine a state for the
purposes of the nomination, but rather
that it is simply following the direction of
the United Nations, which in 2012 voted
to recognize Palestine as a nonmember
observer state, no matter the status of
Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.
❑
Omar is scheduled to open Friday,
Feb. 21, in Detroit.
This outstanding program includes:
Photographer Christopher Duggan
Dancers: Victoria Jalani and Miguel Angel Blanco
"INTERPLAY"
Choreography by Jerome Robbins
with Music by Morton Gould
FREE DANCE TALK one hour prior
to performance.
"NINE SINATRA SONGS"
Choreography by Twyla Tharp
with Songs sung by Frank Sinatra
These performances by The Joffrey Ballet
are supported in part by a generous gift from the
Betty, Marvin & Joanne Danto Dance Endowment
"SON OF CHAMBER SYMPHONY"
Choreography by Stanton Welch
with Music by John Adams
cirts
/
urol f
• •
ARTWORKS.
Notional
Endowment
torMeArts
This activity is supported by the MICHIGAN COUNCIL FOR ARTS
AND CULTURAL AFFAIRS and the NATIONAL ENDOWMENT
FOR THE ARTS.
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February 20 • 2014
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