Thirst
(Atash)
by Tawfik Abu Wael
Palestine
Script: Tawfik Abu Wael
Cinematographer: Asaf Sudry
Editing: Galit Shaked-Shaul
Sound: Maxime Segal
Music: Wissam M. Gibran
Cast: H. Yassin Mahjane, A. Abed El Gani, Roba Blal, Amal Bweerat, J. Abu Hussein
Production: Avi Kleiberger
Contact:
Momento
38 rue de la Chine
75020 Paris
France
Tel: 0033 1.43.66.25.24
Fax: 0033 1.43.66.86.00
Mail: [email protected]
www.momento-production.com
Year: 2004
35 mm, Colour, 110 min,
OV Arabic with French Subtitles
Critics' Week Cannes Film Festival 2004
For ten years, Abu Shukri and his family have been living at the bottom of a valley, in the middle of nowhere, far from their native village. They are self-sufficient, making their own wood charcoal from trees they poach. The father and his son are the only ones to keep a contact with the outside world. The father sells his wood charcoal in the village and the son often runs away to go to school. The mother and two daughters restlessly work in smoking the wood. The reason why they left the village keeps them in the valley, despite their isolation and des titution. One day, the father decides to canalize the nearby source.
“Conflict is present among the characters, in their soul, in the complexity of their relationships, in their conscience…Atash is a depiction of the world where I come from.” Tawfik Abu Wael
Thirst is a very powerful film which tackles the Israeli Palestinian conflict and allows us to share a family tragedy born out of a taboo.
