Najwa Najjar

Najwa Najjar (Arabic: نجوى نجار‎‎) is a Palestinian-Jordanian filmmaker. She began her career making commercials and has worked in both documentary and fiction since 1999. Her debut feature film Pomegranates and Myrrh picked up 10 international awards, sold worldwide and was released theatrically and screened at over 80 international festivals.[1]

Najjar's work includes several award-winning films also shown worldwide; Yasmine Tughani (2006), Naim and Wadee’a (1999), Quintessence of Oblivion (2000),[2] Blue Gold (2004), A Boy Called Mohamad (2002), and They Came from the East which opened the 2004 European Academy Awards.[3]

Najjar produced a collection of short films by international filmmakers Gaza Winter (2009) and produced a second long feature Eyes of A Thief, a Palestinian/Algerian/French/Icelandic co-production which received the support of Sundance Scriptwriting Lab, Sundance Duke Award, Dubai Film Connection, Jordan Film Fund and was a participant in the Rome International film Festival New Cinema Network.[4]

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 tied for the Award for Films of Conflict and Resolution at the 2000 Hamptons International Film Festival.[5]

Najjar's first fictional film, Pomegranates and Myrrh, features a young Palestinian dancer who defends her family's land after her husband is sent to an Israeli prison.[6][7] According to Najjar, when the film was first screened in Ramallah there was public outcry[8] over the film's portrayal of "what was deemed its 'unpatriotic' portrayal of an untrustworthy wife of a political prisoner."[9] At the Doha Tribeca Film Festival, the film won the Best Arab Film award.[10][11]

A speaker on numerous panels on cinema and a member of International Film Festival Juries, Najjar has also reviewed books, and her articles on Palestinian cinema have been published. She was a reader for the Rawi Sundance Lab for Arab scriptwriters, and organized seminars for Palestinian filmmakers. Najjar lives in the Palestinian Territories.[12]

Filmography

References

  1. ↑ "Palestinian drama 'Pomegranates and Myrrh' opens in UAE at Eid". Al Bawaba. August 29, 2011.
  2. ↑ Najjar, Najwa (18 April 2008). "How cinema helped me to survive in Palestine". The Guardian.
  3. ↑ "Najwa Najjar biography". Festival Scope. Retrieved 20 November 2013.
  4. ↑ "Fabbrica dei Progetti La Selezione del 2011" (PDF). Rome Film Festival. Retrieved 20 November 2013.
  5. ↑ Farsoun, Samih K. (2004). Culture and Customs of the Palestinians. Westport, Conn. [u.a.]: Greenwood Press. p. 121. ISBN 978-0-313-32051-4.
  6. ↑ Anderson, John (July 15, 2009). "Review: 'Pomegranates and Myrrh'". Variety.
  7. ↑ Chaudhary, Suchitra Bajpai (September 16, 2011). "My world: Film-maker Najwa Najjar". Friday.
  8. ↑ Kuttab, Daoud (April 3, 2009). "Palestinians Angry About Portrayal of Prisoners' Wife by Palestinian Filmmaker". Huffington Post.
  9. ↑ 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.
  10. ↑ Ebiri, Bilge (November 4, 2009). "Doha-Tribeca Fest's Six Best Middle Eastern Films". Vulture.
  11. ↑ Jaafar, Ali (December 4, 2009). "Rab Pack: the Arab new wave". Variety.
  12. ↑ "Najwa Najjar profile". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 November 2013.
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