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| Does Freida Pinto (Immortals (2011)), the star of Julian Schnabel's Miral, look like a terrorist? In 2016, the answer might well be that she could look like one |
Miral begins around the formation of the state of Israel following WWII and goes on from there, centering on 'mama' Hinds' (Hiam Abbass (Inheritance (2012))) foundation of her Palestinian orphanage, the 6-day War, mutual brutalization, inhuman tensions and terror. The latter involves young Miral, who escapes the clutches of the rage of youth and becomes a journalist.
New Yorker master filmmaker Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly/Le Scaphandre et le Papillon (2007)) tells a fragmented story in Miral, which is further disturbed by his shaky camera, (cinematography by Eric Gautier (Into the Wild (2007)). It is a very well-meant film with some okay acting, which, however, never succeeds with its mission to chronologize the Israel-Palestine conflict as a succession of events we are to follow separately. It is regrettably quickly forgotten again. A Tom Waits song attached to its end doesn't salvage this very ambitious pic.
It is written by Rula Jebreal, based on her own biographical novel.
Watch an official trailer for the film here
Box office: 0.9 mil. $
= Unknown (but definitely a box office disaster)
[Miral premiered September 3 (Venice International Film Festival) and runs 112 minutes. Filming took place in Israel in and around April 2009. Schnabel approached the film with his personal baggage as an American Jew, but Miral still drew the ire of the Israeli government and the Jewish community in the US upon its release, who criticized the "highly negative light" it supposedly casts on Israel. The film had a UN premiere attended by various Hollywood stars. Tragedy hit as one of the film's actors, peace activist Juliano Mer-Khamis was shot dead in his car outside a theater he had established in a Palestinian refugee camp on April 4 2011, days after the US release. The film opened #43 in just 4 theaters to a 66k $ first weekend in North America, where it peaked in 29 theaters and grossed 373k $ (41.4 % of the total gross). The film was only released in 9 other countries of which only the United Arab Emirates is in the part of the world portrayed in the film. The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Italy with 240k $ (26.7 %) and Portugal with 211k $ (23.4 %). Putting the film's budget at a conservative 5 mil. $ would still mean that its theatrical performance was a financial disaster. Miral is rotten at 17 % with a 4.4 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Miral?
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