Muayad Alayan
Directing
Biography
Muayad Alayan is a Palestinian film director, cinematographer and producer based in Palestine. His directorial debut ‘Love, Theft and Other Entanglements’ (2015), which he also produced, had its premiere in the Panorama section of the Berlin International Film Festival. It was nominated for the First Feature Award and has since been distributed in more than 20 territories. His first short film premiered at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in 2009 and went on to screen at more than 60 festivals. He also co-directed and produced the documentary ‘Sacred Stones’, which won the Al-Jazeera Channel Award in 2012.
Known For
Mourning her mother’s death and struggling to adjust to her new life in Israel, a young girl bonds with the lonely spirit of a Palestinian child.
A House in Jerusalem
The affair of a married Palestinian man and a married Israeli woman in Jerusalem takes a dangerous political dimension when they are spotted in the wrong place at the wrong time, leaving them to deal with more than their broken marriages.
The Reports on Sarah and Saleem
Layabout, clandestine lover, small-time hood – Mousa has all kinds of skills. A refugee camp resident, this Palestinian does not give a damn about his father’s hard-won permit to work legally in the Israeli part of Jerusalem – he would rather earn a living stealing Israeli cars and selling them to Palestinian fences. Mousa is convinced that his future lies far away from all the violence and constraints that characterise life in the divided city; his heart, moreover, belongs to a married woman. Following the theft of a Passat one day he is given a brutal goingover by Palestinian militia-men. On closer inspection of the vehicle, he makes a discovery which suddenly makes apolitical Mousa of interest to all sides …
Love, Theft and Other Entanglements
Considered by many as the Palestinian white oil, stone is the most sought-after raw natural material in Palestine. Unfortunately, much of the Palestinian industry is held hostage by Israeli builders, including matters related to Israeli construction within the occupied territories. Furthermore, the massive extraction of stone has a significant environmental, social, and medical impact on nearby villages, cities, and fields. Every protest from Palestinian citizens against the exploitation of stone by Israel is still largely ignored, both by the International Community and Palestinian officials, who are unable to halt the development that this extractive sector has undertaken.