Origin: United Arab Emirates | Norway | France | Tunisia | Palestine | Italy | Switzerland | Fiction | Director: Rashid Masharawi | 90 minutes

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Palestine stereo (Falastine Stereo)

Rashid Masharawi 2013 fiction 90 min.

Palestinian director Rashid Mashawari follows his widely acclaimed dark
comedy Laila's Birthday with this compelling and ironic drama about two
brothers on the West Bank who, rendered homeless by an Israeli air strike,
hustle odd jobs to raise enough money to emigrate to Canada. After their
apartment building in the West Bank is destroyed by an Israeli air strike,
brothers Samy (Salah Hannoun) and Milad (Mahmoud Abou Jazi) - nicknamed
"Stereo" - become homeless, living in a tent set up in a nearby yard.

Stereo, a wedding singer who once held promise, lost his wife in the
shelling. Samy, an electrician, lost the ability to hear and speak. The two
men can no longer endure the hopelessness of their situation, and decide to
immigrate to Canada, where they imagine they can pursue their dreams. The
application procedure being expensive, they relocate to Ramallah, where
their sister lives and where there is the opportunity for them to earn
enough money to emigrate. Director Rashid Masharawi's follow-up to his
widely successful Laila's Birthday faithfully captures the hardships as
well as the paradoxes of everyday life in the West Bank. Masharawi adeptly
balances both biting realism and a sordid note of absurdity with his sober
political critique. (In spite of his hearing loss, Samy is able to hustle
jobs as a sound engineer, while he and Stereo rent out sound equipment from
a beat-up, second-hand ambulance they cruise around in.) A compelling drama
tinged with irony, Palestine Stereo is a searing meditation on the
significance of homeland and homemaking. Is home the place where one is
born and feels bonds of belonging, or is it where one pursues the
opportunity to make a life with dignity?

Rashid Masharawi was born in Gaza.
He has directed several features including Curfew (93). Haifa (95). Waiting
(05) and Laila's Birthday (08), which both screened at the Festival. and
the documentary Live From Palestine (02). His latest feature is Palestine
Stereo (13).

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mch2S6MKusg

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View trailer