Cinema Releases - Wajib
Abu Shadi (Mohammad Bakri) is a divorced father and a school teacher in his mid-60s living in Nazareth. After his daughter’s wedding in one month he will be living alone. Shadi (Saleh Bakri), his architect son, arrives from Rome after years abroad to help his father to hand-deliver the wedding invitations to each guest, which is the local Palestinian custom. As the estranged pair spend the day together, the tense details of their relationship come to a head challenging their fragile and very different lives.
Week Commencing 14 Sept (Also on Curzon Home Cinema , BFI Player)
Curzon Bloomsbury |
Brunswick Centre | London WC1N 1AW |
0333 321 0104 |
all week |
|
Watershed | 1 Canon's Road | Bristol BS1 5TX | 0117 927 5100 | all week | |
Showroom | 15 Paternoster Row |
Sheffield S1 2BX |
0114 275 7727 |
all week | |
IFI | 6 Eustace Street, Temple Bar |
Dublin, DO2 PD85 |
1 679 5744 |
all week | |
Cine Lumiere |
|
London SW7 2DT |
020 7871 3515 | 15/9 only |
|
Arts Picturehouse |
38-39 St. Andrew's Street | Cambridge CB2 3AR | 0871 902 5720 | all week |
Week Commencing 21 Sept (Also on Curzon Home Cinema , BFI Player)
Curzon Bloomsbury | Brunswick Centre | London WC1N 1AW | 0333 321 0104 | all week |
ICA Cinema | The Mall | London SW1Y 5AH | 020 7930 3647 | all week |
HOME | 2 Tony Wilson Place |
Manchester M15 4FN |
0161 200 1500 |
all week |
Phoenix Picturehouse | 57 Walton St | Oxford OX2 6AE | 0871 902 5747 | all week |
Showroom | 15 Paternoster Row | Sheffield S1 2BX | 0114 275 7727 | 22,23,26 |
Week Commencing 28 Sept (Also on Curzon Home Cinema , BFI Player)
Curzon Bloomsbury | Brunswick Centre | London WC1N 1AW | 0333 321 0104 | all week |
ICA Cinema | The Mall | London SW1Y 5AH | 020 7930 3647 | all week |
Glasgow Film Theatre | 12 Rose St |
Glasgow G3 6RB |
0141 332 6535 |
2-4 Oct |
Lexi Cinema |
194b Chamberlayne Rd |
London NW10 3JU |
020 3011 5523 |
3-4 Oct |
HOME | 2 Tony Wilson Place | Manchester M15 4FN | 0161 200 1500 | all week |
Phoenix Picturehouse | 57 Walton St | Oxford OX2 6AE | 0871 902 5747 | 28,29 Sept |
Cinema City | 27 St Andrews St | Norwich NR2 4AD | 0871 902 5747 | 28,29/9, 1,2/10 |
Arthouse Crouch End | 159A Tottenham Lane | London N8 9BT | 020 8245 3099 | all week |
Week Commencing 5 October (Also on Curzon Home Cinema , BFI Player)
Curzon Bloomsbury | Brunswick Centre | London WC1N 1AW | 0333 321 0104 | all week |
ICA Cinema |
The Mall |
London SW1Y 5AH |
020 7930 3647 |
6/7 Oct |
Chapter Cinema | Market Rd, Canton |
Cardiff CF5 1QE |
029 2030 4400 |
5 - 9 Oct |
JW3 Cinema | 341-351 Finchley Rd | London NW3 6ET | 020 7433 8988 | 7 - 11 Oct |
Quad |
Market Place |
Derby DE1 3AS |
01332 290606 |
5 - 8 Oct |
Queens Film Theatre | 20 University Square |
Belfast BT7 1PA |
028 9097 1097 |
8 - 11 Oct |
The Gate Cinema | North Main St |
Cork | 021 427 9595 |
8 Oct only |
Week Commencing 19 October (Also on Curzon Home Cinema , BFI Player)
Firstsite | Lewis Gardens |
Colchester C01 1JH |
01206 713700 |
22 Oct only |
Film Theatre |
Corn Exchange, King St |
Ipswich IP1 1DH |
07884 076950 |
25-27 Oct |
Ultimate Picture Palace | Jeune St, Cowley Road | Oxford OX4 1BN | 01865 245 288 | 21, 24, 25 Oct only |
Week Commencing 26 October (Also on Curzon Home Cinema , BFI Player
Filmhouse | 88 Lothian Rd |
Edinburgh EH3 9BZ |
0131 228 2688 |
30 Oct-1 Nov |
Phoenix | 4 Midland St |
Leicester LE1 1TG |
0116 242 2800 |
26-30 Oct |
Plough Arts | 9-11 Fore St |
Gt Torrington EX38 8HQ |
01805 624624 |
30 Oct |
Barn Theatre | Dartington Hall |
Totnes TW9 6EL |
01803 847070 |
31 Oct |
Week Commencing 2 November (Also on Curzon Home Cinema , BFI Player)
Curzon Clevedon | 46 Old Church St |
Clevedon BS21 6NN |
01275 871000 |
4 Nov only |
Film Theatre Reading | Palmer Bldg, Whiteknights |
Reading RG6 2AH |
0118 378 7151 |
8 Nov only |
Picture house Hebden Bridge | New Road | Hebden Bride HX7 8AD | 01422 842807 | 4 Nov only |
Norden Park Maidenhead | Altwood Road | Maidenhad, SL6 4PF | 01628 788997 | 5 8, 9 Nov only |
Bath Film Festival | Odeon Bath, Kingsmead Complex | Bath BA1 2BX | 01225 463362 | 8 Nov only |
Saffron Screen | 1 Market Place | Saffron Walden CB11 4UH | 01799 500238 | 5 Nov only |
Week Commencing 16 November (Also on Curzon Home Cinema , BFI Player)
Hyde Park Picturehouse | 73 Brudenell Rd |
Leeds LS6 1JD |
0113 275 2045 |
20 Nov only |
Palestinian filmmaker Annemarie Jacir has written, directed and produced over sixteen films. Her short film LIKE TWENTY IMPOSSIBLES (2003) was the first Arab short film in history to be an official selection of the Cannes Film Festival and continued to break ground when it went on to be a finalist for the Academy Awards.
Her second work to debut in Cannes Un Certain Regard, the critically acclaimed SALT OF THIS SEA (2008), garnered fourteen international awards, included the FIPRESCI Critics Award. It was the first feature film directed by a Palestinian woman and Palestine’s 2008 Oscar Entry for Foreign Language Film.
WHEN I SAW YOU (a New Wave release) won, among other awards, Best Asian Film at the 63rd Berlin Intl Film Festival and Best Arab Film in Abu Dhabi FF. It was also Palestine’s 2012 Oscar Entry. Notably, the film’s production was entirely Arab‑financed with all Palestinian producers marking a new trend in Arab cinema.
WAJIB is her third Feature film
FEATURE FILMS
Wajib (2017)
When I Saw You (2012)
Salt of this Sea (2008)
SHORTS
Like Twenty Impossibles (2003)
Sound of the Street (2006)An Explanation : (and then Burn the Ashes) (2005)
A Few Crumbs for the Birds (2005)
Until When (2004)
Palestine is Waiting (2001)
The Satellite Shooters (2001)
Two Hundred Years of American Ideology (2000)
A Revolutionary Tale (2000)
A Post-Oslo History (1998)
Interview (1994)
CREW |
|
Director |
Annemarie Jacir |
Script |
Annemarie Jacir |
Producer |
Ossama Bawardi |
DOP |
Antoine Heberle |
Production designer |
Nael Kanj |
Editor |
Jacques Comets |
Sound designer |
Carlos Garcia |
Costume designer |
Hamada Atallah |
Mixing |
Kostas Varympopiotis |
Production Company |
Philistine Films |
Coproducers |
JBA production, Cactus World Films, |
Metafora Productions, Klinkerfilm, |
|
Ciudad Lunar, Ape&Bjørn, |
|
Snow Globe Film, Schortcut Films |
|
With the participation of |
L’Aide aux Cinémas du Monde - CNC, |
Institut Français, Palestinian Ministry of Culture |
|
Enjaaz, FDC Colombia, Sorfond, |
|
Visions Sud Est, Doha Film Institute, |
|
Nord Deutscher Rundfunk NDR |
|
Palestine / France/Germany/Columbia/ Norway/ Qatar/ |
|
2017 / 96 MN / DCP 5.1 / 1.85 Colour |
|
Certificate 15 | |
CAST |
|
Abu Shadi |
Mohammad Bakri |
Shadi |
Saleh Bakri |
Amal |
Maria Zreik |
Fadya |
Rada Alamuddin |
What’s most impressive is the way Jacir reveals these complex intertwining backstories through apparently incidental interaction. With a superb lightness of touch she uncovers the ancient hurts with which these characters wrestle, laying bare the raw nerves beneath the polite smiles...a film of surprising warmth and generosity, which takes a situation riven by discord and turns it into a melancholy song of resolution.
Mark Kermode, The Observer
★★★★
'Big ideas and the everyday frictions of family elide in this sensitive, impressive Palestinian drama.'
Dave Calhoun, Time Out
★★★★
‘A whip-smart, moving comedy of family and community.’
"It is the apparently apolitical normality of Wajib which paradoxically is its most powerful political message.”
John Bleasdale, CineVue★★★★
"Annemarie Jacir’s comedy-drama interleaves simmering tension in the Israeli town with moments of terrific humour."
Leslie Felperin, The Guardian
★★★★
This funny-poignant Palestinian “road movie” trundles down every known or imaginable street while giving the sardonic, critical welly to ethnic and political tensions.
Nigel Andrews, The Financial Times★★★★
'The droll script and humane performances are quite special.'
Ed Potton, The Times
‘Proof, if any further evidence was needed, that Jacir is the pre-eminent female filmmaker in the Arab world, whether she’s working as a director, producer, editor or screenwriter.’
Kaleem Aftab, Filmmaker Magazine
★★★★
"Quietly compelling drama...eye-widening look inside a Palestinian family."
Thomas Nguyen, Little White Lies
★★★★
‘Annemarie Jacir's characters may not leave the city of Nazareth as they take a circular road trip in Wajib but the emotional distance they travel is considerable.’
Amber Wilkinson, Eye for Film
★★★★"Annemarie Jacir's inner-city road movie sees this duo (winningly played by real-life father and son Mohammed and Saleh Bakri) spar over matters both serious and trivial. Even as Jacir ably explores faultiness of politics, culture and tradition, she delivers a wryly affectionate odd-couple comedy. "
Simon Kinnear, Total Film
★★★★
'Warm and relatable road movie from Palestinian director Annemarie Jacir.'
Allan Hunter, The List
★★★★
"This is expert filmmaking from Annemarie Jacir, now a veteran of the art house festival circuit. A story of fathers and sons, East and West, progression and conservation, Wajib intelligently explores the tensions within an Arab family living in contemporary Israel."
Joseph Owen, Upcoming
Download 3 more photos
Download press book
Download Poster high res jpg
Download Poster low res for website use
Download Trailer Full size Pro Res
Trailer on YouTube
Interview with Annemarie Jacir in Sight & Sound
Interview with Annemarie Jacir in Eye for Film
Clip 1 - 'That's "wajib" ' on YouTube on Vimeo or download full mp4 file