waiting was my film festival movie for this evening. it got on my list as part of my effort to see every festival film with arabic in it. there aren't that many, so it won't be too hard.
anyway, the film follows three characters as they tour the palestinian diaspora, visiting refugee camps in jordan, syria and lebanon, to audition actors to come to the opening of the palestinian national theater in gaza. the main character is convinced that the theater will never actually open in his lifetime, but he agrees to go anyway. the theme of waiting permeates the film, people wait to cross borders, to reunite with family members, to audition, but especially for the existence of a palestinian state. it was pretty well done. a film about waiting around could easily become too boring to watch, but it managed to keep my interest throughout.
plus, i got all excited in the bit when they went to damascus. i'm certain the hotel they stayed in was fanduk ar-raabi'a (فندق الرابع). both the interior courtyard and the entrance were dead ringers for the place that i stayed for a couple of days last september. i waded through the closing credits to see if they thanked the hotel at the end, but they didn't mention it. they didn't seem to mention the name of any hotel. i'm still convinced it's ar-raabi'a. maybe someday someone from the hotel will google it, find this post, and can tell me if i'm right. so... was i?
A VERY SPECIAL MESSAGE TO EVERYONE WHO DOESN'T CARE ABOUT THE FILM FESTIVAL: yeah, i know this festival blogging can get tedious after a while if you don't care about any of these films or what i think about them. but, let's face it, this is my site and since when do i give a shit about what you want me to talk about? get over it. besides, the festival is 1/2 way over already. soon, i'll return to my usual bunch of obsessions, including whichever one you happen to care about. just be patient! oh, and keep visiting in the meantime. we don't want my hit numbers to drop or anything. we value your patronage, your call is important to us, et cetera. just stand-by a little longer...
