world cinema world cinema
y y
contemporar contemporar
Laila’s Birthday (Eid milad Laila) Last Conversation
P A L E S T I N E / T U N I S I A /
Born in Gaza, director Rashid Masharawi knows Ramallah – the setting
THE NETHERLANDS
For this starkly compelling experimental drama, Dutch writer/director
THE NETHERLANDS
of his darkly absurd comedy Laila’s Birthday – intimately. He shows off Director: Noud Heerkens Noud Heerkens trained 25 digital video cameras simultaneously on the
Director: Rashid Masharawi
the simultaneous beauty and chaos of the occupied city as his principled Producers: Nico Geusebroek, troubled face of his lone character, an accomplished lawyer named
Producers: Mohamed Habib
protagonist, ex-judge Abu Laila, traverses it in his brother-in-law’s
Nadadja Kemper, Rob Vermeulen
Anna, who drives her car through the countryside while talking on the
Attia, Wouter Barendrecht,
taxicab. Screenwriter: Jacqueline Epskamp telephone to Laurens, the married lover who has recently jilted her, for
Rashid Masharawi, Peter van
Cinematographer: the entire 73-minute length of the film. We hear only Anna’s side of
MS: A to Z Vogelpoel, Michael J. Werner
Abu awakens on his daughter Laila’s seventh birthday to the sound of
Richard Van Oosterhout
the conversation – for us, the voice at the other end of her Bluetooth
MS: A to Z
il Screenwriter: Rashid Masharawi
breaking glass – a foreshadowing of the day to come. Before he takes Editor: Merel Noten is but an incoherent murmur. Yet we are still able to piece together
il
Cinematographers: Tarek ben off in the cab, which he is driving until he is able to convince the inef-
Cast: Johanna ter Steege the glories and the bitter failures of Anna’s affair as her intermittent
E F Abdallah, Nestor Sanz
fective Ministry of Justice to give him back his position on the bench, his
2009 / color / 73 min.
monologue runs the gamut from regret to rage, nostalgia to bewilder-
E F
h
Editor: Pascal Chavance
h
T
wife reminds him to pick up a cake and gift. Throughout the day, Abu’s ment, raw desperation to quiet acceptance.
T
Cast: Mohamed Bakri, Areen Omari, fares test his patience and his desire for law and order. One woman
Nour Zoubi
takes him on a morbid trip to both the hospital and the cemetery to visit
nouD hEErKEnS
Indeed, for acclaimed actress Johanna ter Steege (Guernsey, SDFF 29) –
2008 / color / 72 min.
her deceased husband. An ex-prisoner leaves his cell phone in Abu’s cab Born in 1954, Noud Heerkens who received the Berlinale Camera in 1993 – the role of Anna offers the
and begins a calling tirade to get it back. Armed passengers ask for a
teaches at several art academies
dramatic equivalent of a solo piano recital, rich in emotional dynamics.
ride to the checkpoints. The requests get more and more unreasonable.
and universities in The Netherlands.
“Do I have the voice of someone hiding something?” Anna at one
raShiD MaSharaWi
Heerkens’s background in video,
Born in 1962 in the Gaza Strip, Rashid
installation, and experimental cinema
point demands of Laurens. By the end of her bravura performance, ter
When his cab needs emergency repairs, Abu finds a mechanic as well as
Masharawi has been influenced by
have influenced his production
Steege has hidden nothing from us of Anna’s trauma, humiliation, and
his homeland in every aspect of his
a bakery for Laila’s cake – but a missile hits the neighborhood and his methods for Last Conversation, his strength of will.
filmmaking. With a background in
vehicle is seized for use as a makeshift ambulance. At this point, Abu’s
feature debut.
documentary cinema, Masharawi has frustrations boil over. Railing at the inhumanity of the occupation, Though prominent in Dutch film circles as a teacher, producer, and
made five features that deal with the
he returns home empty-handed – but finds that his passengers have programmer, Heerkens has until now limited himself to short films and
complicated issues surrounding the
inadvertently provided for Laila for him. video installations. This is his first full-length feature, shot (with the
Palestinian question. His work has
assistance of cinematographer Richard Van Oosterhout) and edited
screened around the world, including
at The Museum of Modern Art.
Of his many films, Masharawi says, “What I have been trying to do is to from the one-take footage of his array of cameras to keep us always on
create cinema out of the Palestinian situation. I feel [film] can offer a edge – along with the protagonist herself, her moods ever shifting with
Selected Filmography mirror … [to reflect] Palestinian life in the last 20 years.” the landscape.
Wait (2005)
Direct to Palestine (2003)
Ticket to Jerusalem (2002)
Stress (1998)
Haifa (1996)
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