Salt of This Sea (2008)

A romantic drama about a working-class woman and her experiences traveling back home.

Director:

Annemarie Jacir

Writers:

Mamoun El Shinawi (poetry writer), Annemarie Jacir

Stars:

Suheir Hammad, Saleh Bakri, Riyad Ideis

5 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Suheir Hammad	...	Soraya
Saleh Bakri	...	Emad
Riyad Ideis	...	Marwan
Dana Drigov	...	Airport Agent 1
Edna Blilious	...	Airport Agent 2 (Ilana) (as Edna Balilous)
Ishai Golan	...	Male Agent
Hagar Lotem	...	Young Agent
Renana Lotem	...	Body Search Agent
Sylvie Wetz	...	Corinne (as Sylvie Wetz)
Yahya Barakat	...	Ziad
Khaled Hourani	...	Khaled
Ismael Dabbag	...	Bank Teller
Jack Saadeh	...	Bank Manager
Iman Aoun	...	Wealthy Landlord
Giras Abu Sabbah	...	Cinematheque Bouncer

Storyline

Soraya, born in Brooklyn in a working class community of Palestinian refugees, discovers that her grandfather's savings were frozen in a bank account in Jaffa when he was exiled in 1948. Direct, stubborn, and determined to reclaim what is hers, she fulfills her life-long dream of "returning" to Palestine. Slowly she is taken apart by the reality around her and is forced to confront her own anger. She meets Emad, a young Palestinian whose ambition, contrary to hers, is to leave forever. Tired of the constraints that dictate their lives, they know in order to be free, they must take things into their own hands, even if it's illegal

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Plot Keywords:

palestine | f rated | male rear nudity | male nudity | israel | 

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Official Sites:

Facebook Page Official site

Country:

Palestine Belgium France Spain Switzerland

Language:

Arabic English Hebrew

Release Date:

3 September 2008 (France)

Also Known As:

Bu Denizin Tuzu

Filming Locations:

Palestine

Box Office

Budget:

EUR800,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$4,973, 15 August 2010

Gross USA:

$11,662

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$736,502

Company Credits

Production Co:

Augustus Film, Clarity Productions, JBA Production

Technical Specs

Runtime:

109 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Palestine's first feature film by a female director.

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Soundtracks

Ya Sayidati
Composed by Tamer Nafar, Suhell Nafar, Mahmud Jreri
Performed by Dam (aka DAM:Tamer Nafar, Suhell Nafar, Mahmud Jreri)

User Reviews

One side of the coin

Cinema, in my eyes, is an art. The best pieces of art in almost any medium are subjective pieces of work they allow you to understand what the artist's feelings, emotion, messages etc. are. However when inducing politics into art one should be very objective. It is impossible to set out a rational film on a political issue if the movie is made in a subjective manner. 'Salt of this Sea' is one such movie where a strive has been made to critique a very delicate situation in Isreal/Palestine, however it is done in such a narrow scope, and at times, disgustingly sentimental way. The mere fact that in the movie, the main character feels such a strong connection with a place she has never been before, is almost laughable, as is the demonising of almost all Isreali characters throughout the film. There can be no doubt that some of the plot and events in the film have merit, but there is an overwhelming bias toward one side of a very complex and challenging issue, that it does no justice to history of the story it is trying to tell.