Pomegranates and Myrrh

Pomegranates and Myrrh is a multiply layered love story depicted against the background of everyday issues in today's Ramallah. It is quite unique to see footage of Palestinian reality being used not for a TV news report but for a creative drama (the wall, checkpoints, the confiscation of an olive farm, heavily armed Israeli soldiers patrolling the streets, etc.). A strong and mature début by a promising film maker.
Zaid (Ashraf Farah) and Kamar (Yasmine Al Massri) are Christian Arabs; the film begins with their marriage in East Jerusalem. Their happiness as newly weds does not last long though, for soon after the wedding a conflict about the confiscation of Zaid’s olive farm ends up with him being put in prison for an indefinite period of time. Kamar is a strong and modern woman, and to survive this difficult period, she decides to pick up her love for dancing again and joins a group of traditional Palestinian folk dancers despite her new family's disapproval.
A new choreographer, the Palestinian returnee Kais (Ali Suleiman) joins the dance group and brings a fresh breeze to the group and to Kamar. Her life is thrown into turmoil as she becomes increasingly attached to Kais and is caught between her desire to dance and not breaking family and social taboos about the role of a prisoner's wife, while life under occupation rages on… (LC)