AMMAN: Palestinian film “Ambience” just snagged the 3rd place prize at the Cannes Film Festival’s Cinéfondation Selection, which honors student films from around the world.
Palestinian director Wisam Al-Jafari of the Dar Al-Kalima University College of Arts and Culture spoke to Arab News about why he decided to shoot the film in black-and-white.
“The reason I chose black and white is to force the viewer to look at the scene and not get distracted by the color,” he said.
In the film, two young Palestinians try to record a demo for a Music Competition inside a noisy crowded refugee camp. They fail to record because of the chaos that surrounds them, they discover an authentic way allow them to meet the deadline creatively.
“‘Ambience’ is a modest attempt to spontaneously film how the third generation absorbs knowledge and transfers it into the next generation. We use this knowledge to manage and create, out of nothing, a home, a life, and a bridge to cross into our dreams with highly motivated passion that can only be grasped by those who experience daily life in refugee camps. We try to recreate our lost land in refugee camps in a way that does not attract empathy, but grabs everyone’s appreciation,” Al-Jafari, a third-generation Palestinian refugee, said in a released statement.
University faculty member, and the film’s producer, Saed Andoni told Arab News that the 15-minute film was in fact the director’s graduation project and added that the university hopes to organize a screening in Bethlehem.
