How the children of a Palestinian theatre group got involved in the Intifadah

A film by Juliano Mer khamis

ARNA'S CHILDREN tells the story of a theatre group that was established by Arna Mer Khamis. Arna comes from a Zionist family and in the 1950s married a Palestinian Arab, Saliba Khamis. On the West Bank, she opened an alternative education system for children whose regular life was disrupted by the Israeli occupation. The theatre group that she started engaged children from Jenin, helping them to express their everyday frustrations, anger, bitterness and fear. Arna's son Juliano, director of this film, was also one of the directors of Jenin's theatre. With his camera, he filmed the children during rehearsal periods from 1989 to 1996. Now, he goes back to see what happened to them. Yussef committed a suicide attack in Hadera in 2001, Ashraf was killed in the battle of Jenin, Alla leads a resistance group. Juliano, who today is one of the leading actors in the region, looks back in time in Jenin, trying to understand the choices made by the children he loved and worked with. Eight years ago, the theatre was closed and life became static and paralysed. Shifting back and forth in time, the film reveals the tragedy and horror of lives trapped by the circumstances of the Israeli occupation.

Critique

» "Weep for this drama club", Yitzhak Laor Haaretz Daily newspaper

» "The Palestinian Romeo" by Uri Avnery, Gush Shalom

» "The Passionate Eye", CBC news World

» "Children of the homeland", Uri Klein Haaretz Daily newspaper

» Arna's Children by Ronnie Scheib, Variety.com

» Film review by Prof. Avraham Oz, Haifa University

» Arna's Children by Arjan El Fassed, The Electronic Intifada

» "They will not lie down until the sun is brought to the castle in Jenin Camp again" by Hani Salloum, Haifa

Languages and pictures

» Arabic

» Hebrew

» Pictures and scenes

Festivals and events

» IDFA film festival, Amsterdam, Nov 2003

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