The concept of the story reminds me of a novel from the late 70s, "An Affair of Strangers", by John Croshy, advertised heavily when it came out; I don't recall a movie of it.
Monday, February 17, 2014
"Zaytoun": a Palestinian boy helps a downed Israeli fighter pilot escape from the PLO in 1982 war
There have been a lot of films recently about social
injustices around the world, but the British-Israeli thriller “Zaytoun”,
directed by Eran Riklia and written by Nader Rizq, a Palestinian-American,
probes the 1982 war in Lebanon for an adventure coming out of conflict. The
word refers to a Palestinian farming cooperative in the olive tree business.
Yoni (Stephen Dorff), an Isareli fighter pilot, is shot down
over Beirut and captured by the PLO.
Whimsically, a Palestinian boy Fahed (Abdallah El Alak), who has lost
his dad to an air attack, has pretended to shoot down a fighter at the same
time; we don’t know if his rifle shot really worked. They meet at the PLO hangout; in one
altercation, Yoni has minor injuries and winds up in an infirmary. Their hostility breaks, and soon Fahed agrees
to help Yoni escape if Yoni will lead Fahed to his dad’s home in
Palestine.
The film becomes a road adventure, with the spectacular
scenery of the arid mountains in Lebanon.
At one point, Fahed nearly releases a mine.
The soundtrack has some music by John Travolta from “Saturday
Night Fever”, specifically “Staying Alive”, which itself became a cosmetically
controversial Travolta film in 1985.
Strand Releasing’s site for the film is here. I watched it from a private Vimeo
screener. The DVD becomes available Feb.
18.
The European distributor is Pathe.
The concept of the story reminds me of a novel from the late 70s, "An Affair of Strangers", by John Croshy, advertised heavily when it came out; I don't recall a movie of it.
The concept of the story reminds me of a novel from the late 70s, "An Affair of Strangers", by John Croshy, advertised heavily when it came out; I don't recall a movie of it.
Wikipedia attribution link for NASA image of Lebanon from
space.
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