Miral

Miral
French film poster
Directed by	Julian Schnabel
Produced by	Jon Kilik François-Xavier Decraene Sonia Raule Jérôme Seydoux
Written by	Rula Jebreal
Starring	Hiam Abbass Freida Pinto Yasmine Al Masri Ruba Jebreal Alexander Siddig Omar Metwally Stella Schnabel Willem Dafoe Vanessa Redgrave
Music by	Olivier Daviaud
Cinematography	Éric Gautier
Editing by	Juliette Welfling
Studio	Pathé ER Productions Canal+ CinéCinéma Eagle Pictures India Take One Productions
Distributed by	Pathé (France 2010) The Weinstein Company (USA 2011)
Release dates	15 September 2010 (2010-09-15) (France) 3 December 2010 (2010-12-03) (United Kingdom) 25 March 2011 (2011-03-25) (United States)
Running time	112 minutes
Language	English
Box office	$900,647

Miral is a 2010 biographical political film directed by Julian Schnabel. The screenplay was written by Rula Jebreal, based on her novel. The film was released on 3 September at the 2010 Venice Film Festival^[1] and on 15 September 2010 in France. The film was set for release on 3 December 2010 in the United Kingdom,^[2] and on 25 March 2011 in the United States.^[3] Miral was initially rated R by the MPAA for "some violent content including a sexual assault." Later, however, it was reclassified to PG-13 for "thematic material, and some violent content including a sexual assault" after an appeal of the R rating by the Weinstein Company.^[4]

On 4 April 2011, days after the film's US release, Juliano Mer-Khamis, an actor and peace activist who plays Seikh Saabah in the film, was shot to death in his car outside a theatre he had established in a Palestinian refugee camp.^[5]

Plot

A chronicle of Hind Husseini's effort to establish an orphanage in Jerusalem after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the Deir Yassin Massacre,^[6][7] and the establishment of the state of Israel.^{[citation needed]}

Jerusalem, 1948. On her way to work, Hind Husseini (Hiam Abbass) comes across 55 orphaned children in the street. She takes them home to give them food and shelter. Within six months, 55 had grown to almost 2,000, and the Dar Al-Tifel Institute was born.

In 1978, at the age of 5, Miral (Freida Pinto) was sent to the Institute by her father following her mother's death. Brought up safely inside the Institute's walls, she is naïve to the troubles that surround her. Then, at the age of 15, she is assigned to teach at a refugee camp where she is awakened to the reality of the Palestinian refugees. When she falls for Hani, a militant, she finds herself torn between the First Intifada of her people and Mama Hind's belief that education is the road to peace.

Cast

• Hiam Abbass as Hind al-Husseini
• Freida Pinto as Miral
• Yasmine Al Masri as Nadia
• Ruba Blal as Fatima
• Alexander Siddig as Jamal
• Omar Metwally as Hani
• Willem Dafoe as Eddie
• Vanessa Redgrave as Bertha Spafford
• Stella Schnabel as Lisa
• Makram Khoury as Khatib
• Doraid Liddawi as Sameer
• Shredi Jabarin as Ali

Production

The Palestinian girl is author Rula Jebreal. Her novel on which the movie is based is a strongly autobiographical account of her youth in West Bank. She's torn between the injustice she sees at the hands of the Israeli army during the First Intifada and a desire for peace.^[8]

Schnabel revealed that the project had relevance for his own family history, figuring that he was a pretty good person to tell the other side of the story, given his background, as an American Jew whose mother was president, in 1948, of the Brooklyn chapter of Hadassah the Women's Zionist Organisation of America.^[9][10]

Reception

Critics

Miral received negative reviews from critics, as it currently holds a 17% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 63 reviews.

Kelly Vance wrote that "Pinto handles the central role with a certain dignity, but the real drama is in Miral’s rejection of violence in favor of Hind Husseini’s (Abbass) example of education and negotiation".^[11]

Kenneth Morefield opined that "Miral is an ambitious film, and it may be that Schnabel's reputation has led to unrealistic expectations about what any film can (or should attempt to) accomplish. While it falls short of greatness, it has many admirable qualities".^[12]

Sheri Linden of The Los Angeles Times writes, "The lack of a compelling lead figure, combined with Schnabel's tentative approach to the material, casts the film's later stretches in the balmy glow of soap opera."^[13] Justin Chang of Variety similarly adds, "Schnabel's signature blend of splintered storytelling and sobering humanism feels misapplied to this sweeping multigenerational saga of four Arab women living under Israeli occupation, the youngest of which, Miral, emerges a bland totem of hope rather than a compelling movie subject."^[14]

Deborah Young of the Hollywood Reporter described the film as "a political film with a message of hope, on the obvious side".^[15]

Miral was reviewed by Geoffrey Macnab of The Independent as "choppily edited" and "unevenly performed" but also "courageous" and "groundbreaking."^[16]

Public discussion with filmmakers

An open public panel discussion about Miral took place on 30 March 2011 at the Center for Palestine Studies in Columbia University with Academy Award nominated film director Julian Schnabel and Palestinian journalist Rula Jebreal on whose autobiographical novel the film was based. Helga Tawil Souri, Professor of Media, Culture, & Communication at NYU, and Hamid Dabashi, Professor of Iranian Studies & Comparative Literature at Columbia University, led and moderated the panel discussion. During the discussion with the moderators, Schnabel and Jebreal discuss the events that led to the film's premiere at the UN General Assembly. Schnabel described the film as sending a political message in his discussions with UN General Assembly President, Mr. Joseph Deiss.^[17]

The premiere at the UN was opposed by the Israeli government and the American Jewish Committee as it depicted Israel in a “highly negative light.” The Jewish-American director Julian Schnabel urged AJC members to see the film, as he felt they had misunderstood its intent. “I love the State of Israel,” wrote Schnabel, “I believe in it, and my film is about preserving it, not hurting it … Instead of saying ‘no,’ I ask the AJC to say ‘yes,’ see Miral and join the discussion.” Hollywood stars Sean Penn, Robert De Niro, Steve Buscemi and Josh Brolin attended the premiere.^[18]

See also

• Deir Yassin massacre
• Israeli Declaration of Independence
• 1948 Arab–Israeli War

References

External links

• Miral at the Internet Movie Database
• Miral at allmovie
• Miral at Box Office Mojo
• Miral at Metacritic
• Miral at Pathé
• Miral at Rotten Tomatoes
• Columnist Ray Hanania on the importance of the film