Screening date: 22-11-2007 -- 17h30
The Gates are Open Sometimes…

In Palestine roads and gates have a different meaning than anywhere else in the world. The film exposes the surreal nature of the daily life of ordinary people in the occupied West Bank.

What kind of roads and passageways do Palestinians have to cross in order to reach their schools, universities, fields, homes or olive groves?

Children, women, students and farmers are daily forced to take these roads and passageways, where they come across many strange happenings. The film captures some of these encounters. Is it at all possible to reach one's destination without somehow needing a miracle?

Country: Palestine
Production: Liana Badr, (with the support of the Palestinian Peace Coalition and Creative Women Forum)
Year: 2006
Director: Liana Badr
Editing: Khaled Al Shakra, Nidal Abu Diab
Cinematography: Joseph Handal, Liana Badr
Music: Bashar Adb Rabbo
Video  –  color  –  42min

Filmography: Liana Badr
Fadwa :  A Tale of a Palestinian Poetess (1999, 52 mn)
Zetounat (2000, 37 mn)
The Green Bird (2002, 37 mn)
A Writer's Diary (Siege) (2003, 33 mn)
The Gates are Open Sometimes (2006, 42 mn)


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biography

Liana Badr was born in 1950 into a nationalist family in Jerusalem. During the 1967 war, she and her family fled to Amman, Jordan. In 1971, she moved to Lebanon where she received a BA in philosophy and psychology at the University of Beirut.  Liana Badr is a filmmaker and scriptwriter, as well as  a well-known Palestinian writer whose novels, notably "A Compass for the Sunflower" (1979) and "The Eye of the Mirror" (1991), have been translated into various languages.
She is head of the Cinema and Audiovisual Department at the Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Culture and founding editor of the ministry's periodical, "Dafatir Thaqafiyya". She has won festival awards for her documentaries and is the author of three screenplays: Rana's Wedding (2002), Jerusalem, More Than a City (2003) and Nablus - City of People and Trees (2003). Badr's compelling talent is to communicate her message through the documentation of ordinary peoples' daily lives.




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