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GIFFONI FILM FESTIVAL 1995 - 29 July.5 August

Sections & Films

THE TALE OF THE THREE JEWELS

Category: Edition 1995

Synopsis
A Palestinian boy becomes entranced with a beautiful Gypsy girl and a fairy tale world she weaves amidst conflict in Gaza. The children explore nature, mysticism and what their future holds, while learning to live with the surrounding brutality c. 1990. Yusef's family scrapes by in a seaside camp while his father's in prison and his heavily-armed brother's on the run, parrying with Israeli troops. Salah, Yusef's schoolmate from a well-off Arab family strives faithfully to assist them, while Yusef helps an elderly, blind neighbor escape from his lonely abandonment into the North American dreamworld he's waited so long for.

Original Title Conte des trois diamants
Italian Title La leggenda dei tre gioielli
Category Official Competition
Section Competition
Tipology Feature Film
Duration 112'
Production Year 1995
Nationality Belgium, Palestine, United Kingdom
Directed by Michael Khleifi
Screenplay Michael Khleifi
Main cast Mohammed Nahnal, Hana' Nc'mch, Bushra Karaman

 regista michel khleifiMICHEL KHLEIFI

Michel Khleifi (Nazareth, 3 November 1950) is a Palestinian director and screenwriter, considered a pioneer of modern Palestinian cinema.
Khleifi was born and raised in Nazareth. As a teenager he was passionate about theater and dreamed of studying cinema abroad. In those days, his city could not offer him the future he wanted, then he emigrated to Belgium in 1970, where he graduated from the INSAS cinema school in Brussels. At the end of his studies, he began working for television as a director of journalistic services. He directed three services on Palestine and Lebanon, and later dedicated himself to directing films, mainly set in Israel and Palestine. Today, Khleifi teaches direction at the INSAS school in Brussels. In Ramallah and in Beirut, he is also supervisor of the audiovisual teaching project of the A.M. Qattan, who works for the development of culture and education in Palestine and in the Arab world.
Khleifi made his first documentary film, Fertile Memories, in 1980. The film was presented at the Film Days of Carthage, where he won the award for best debut film. In 1987 he directed his first narrative feature film, Nozze in Galilee, a multi-award-winning debut. Khleifi in his early films supported national unity between Palestinians and Israelis, a concept tolerated by the Palestinians but not by the Tunisian and Egyptian public that accused him of Zionism. Wedding in Galilee was also the first film directed by a Palestinian and filmed in Palestine to have been distributed abroad.
Khleifi's films are considered classics of modern Palestinian cinema. In 1994, after a film based on a Belgian novel, the director wrote and directed The Legend of the Three Jewels, the first film to be shot in Gaza.