Annemarie Jacir’s “When I Saw You” wins best Arab world film in Abu Dhabi

Annemarie Jacir’s new feature film When I Saw You (Lamma Shoftak) has won Best Film from the Arab World in the New Horizons competition at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival.

“We loved the way in which Annemarie Jacir approached the sensitive subject of that crucial period,” wrote the international jury headed by French editor Françoise Bonnot, of the narrative feature set in the aftermath of the 1967 war.

The film’s synopsis:

In the summer of 1967, Israeli forces seize control of the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria. Thousands of Palestinians pour into Jordan, some separated from their families by the chaos of war. Among them are 11-year-old Tarek (Mahmoud Asfa) and his mother, Ghaydaa (Ruba Blal), who wind up in the Harir refugee camp – but Tarek’s father is missing.

Jacir is an accomplished and pioneering Palestinian director whose previous feature is Salt of This Sea and who has several groundbreaking short and experimental films to her credit.

Congratulations Annemarie!

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