UPSHOT
Maha Haj / France, Italy, Palestine / 2024 / 34 min / Colour
Suleiman and Lubna live in an isolated house, a two-hour walk from the nearest bus stop, in the middle of the mountains. They have withdrawn from the world and found refuge there, taking care of their olive grove and chickens. Their daily work is interspersed with conversations at the table, where they speak affectionately about their five children, their university choices, jobs, and grandchildren who bring joy to the grandparents. This reassuring picture is interrupted when a journalist arrives to interview them about the tragic event that hit their family ten years earlier: an Israeli missile that destroyed their home. The fragile balance Suleiman and Lubna built crumbles, and they find themselves facing the abyss of grief. The director stages a fictional story set against the harsh reality of a nation—Palestine—marked by decades of conflict.
Maha Haj
A graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, she made her directorial debut in 2009 with the short Oranges, which won an award at the Montpellier Mediterranean Film Festival. Her documentary Behind These Walls followed in 2010. Her feature Personal Affairs (2016) was presented at the Cannes Film Festival and received the Archie Award at the Philadelphia Film Festival and the Critics’ Award at Montpellier. Mediterranean Fever received the Best Screenplay Award at Cannes in 2022.
