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Najwa Najjar

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Najwa Najjar (Arabic: نجوى نجار) is a film writer and director. She was born to a Jordanian father and Palestinian mother. She began her career making commercials and has worked in both documentary and fiction since 1999.

Her debut feature film Pomegranates and Myrrh won 10 awards,[which?] and was released theatrically and screened at over 80 international festivals.[1][2][3] When the film was first screened in Ramallah, there was public outcry by the Hamas Government in Gaza[4] over the film's portrayal of "what was deemed its 'unpatriotic' portrayal of an untrustworthy wife of a political prisoner."[5] At the Doha Tribeca Film Festival, the film won the Best Arab Film award.[6][7]

The 1999 documentary film Naim and Wadee’a was based on Najjar's family and includes the oral histories of Na’im Azar and Wadee’a Aghabi, a couple who were forced to leave their Jaffa home in 1948. The film won the Award for Films of Conflict and Resolution at the 2000 Hamptons International Film Festival.[8]

Her film, Eyes of a Thief, was the official Palestinian submission to the 87th Academy Awards.[9][10]

Najjar lives in the Palestinian Territories.[9]

Filmography

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[11][12]

  • Naim and Wadee’a (1999)
  • Quintessence of Oblivion (2000)
  • A Boy Named Mohamed (2001)
  • Blue Gold (2004)
  • They Came from the East (2004)
  • Yasmine Tughani (2006)
  • Pomegranates and Myrrh (2009)
  • Eyes of a Thief (2014)
  • Between Heaven and Earth (2019)

References

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  1. ^ "Palestinian drama 'Pomegranates and Myrrh' opens in UAE at Eid". Al Bawaba. 29 August 2011. Retrieved 15 August 2022.
  2. ^ Anderson, John (15 July 2009). "Pomegranates and Myrrh". Variety. Retrieved 15 August 2022.
  3. ^ Chaudhary, Suchitra Bajpai (16 September 2011). "My world: Film-maker Najwa Najjar". Gulf News. Retrieved 15 August 2022.
  4. ^ Kuttab, Daoud (4 May 2009). "Palestinians Angry About Portrayal of Prisoners' Wife by Palestinian Filmmaker". Huffington Post. Retrieved 15 August 2022.
  5. ^ Ball, Anna (2012). Palestinian Literature and Film in Postcolonial Feminist Perspective. New York: Routledge. pp. 70–71, 182–183. ISBN 978-0-415-88862-2.
  6. ^ Ebiri, Bilge (4 November 2009). "6 Best Middle Eastern Films From Doha-Tribeca Fest". Vulture. Retrieved 15 August 2022.
  7. ^ Jaafar, Ali (4 December 2009). "Rab Pack: the Arab new wave". Variety. Retrieved 15 August 2022.
  8. ^ Farsoun, Samih K. (2004). Culture and Customs of the Palestinians. Westport, Conn. [u.a.]: Greenwood Press. p. 121. ISBN 978-0-313-32051-4. Najwa Najjar.
  9. ^ a b "Najwa Najjar". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 August 2022.
  10. ^ "Fabbrica dei Progetti La Selezione del 2011" (PDF). Fondazione Cinema per Roma. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 15 August 2022.
  11. ^ Najjar, Najwa (18 April 2008). "How cinema helped me to survive in Palestine". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 August 2022.
  12. ^ "Najwa Najjar". Festival Scope. Archived from the original on 10 June 2015. Retrieved 15 August 2022.

General references

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