16/09/2016 - Israel will be represented by Maysaloun Hamoud's film at the 64th edition of the Basque gathering

Today, the 64th edition of the San Sebastián Film Festival kicks off, and Israel will be represented there by the screening of Maysaloun Hamoud’s In Between [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Maysaloun Hamoud
film profile]. With her first feature film, she will compete with 14 other filmmakers for the New Directors Award.

Hamoud was born in Budapest but returned to Dir Hana, her family’s native land in Israel, when she was only two years old. She began her career studying Middle Eastern History at the University of Jerusalem, and after that, she entered the world of filming and studied Film at the Minshar Film School in Tel Aviv. Hamoud has already had the honour of seeing her short films Salma (2013), Scent of Morning (2010) and Shades of Light (2008) screened at film festivals all over the world, and now In Between has made it as well, despite it being her first full-length feature film.

In Between gives us a glimpse of three young women who leave their lives in their traditional villages to move to the vibrant city of Tel Aviv. Leila is a 28-year-old criminal lawyer from a Nazarene bourgeois secular Muslim family, who works during the day and parties all night, in contrast with her previous familiar lifestyle. Salma is 29 and is a night DJ and a lesbian, and comes from a liberal, Christian family. And the last of them to move into the apartment is Nour, a quiet, studious and religious Muslim girl who is engaged to Abdellah.

Although they had totally separate lives, they end up being flatmates and build a peculiar friendship while sharing their Palestinian origins, which will cause them to face racism amongst a Jewish majority, as well as their gender, which will force them to deal with sexist situations.

Hamoud expressed her identification with the fight for a balance between modernity and tradition: “The story of my characters is actually the story of my life and that of many others who live in the backyard of Palestinian-Israeli society." Now her film could win her a New Directors Award at this 64th edition of the San Sebastián Film Festival.