2003 Movies : Romance

With Elia Suleiman • Emma Boltanski • Amer Daher • Jamel Daher • Nayef Fahoum Daher • George Ibrahim • Manal Khader • George Khleifi • Avi Kleinberger • Salman Nattor • Menashe Noy • Nazira Suleiman

"Divine Intervention" follows ES, a character played by and clearly based upon the filmmaker himself. ES is burdened with a sick father, a stalled screenplay and an unrequited love affair with a beautiful Palestinian woman (Manal Khader) living in Ramallah. An Israeli checkpoint on the Nazareth-Ramallah road forces the couple to rendezvous in an adjacent parking lot. Their relationship and the absurd situations around them serve as metaphors for the lunacy of larger cultural problems, and the result is palpable, bottled personal and political rage.

With Christy Chung • Jamayang Jinpa • Shawn Ku • Neelesha Bavora • Kelsang Tashi • Lhakpa Tsering • Tenzin Tashi • Nalin Pan • lin Pan

"Samsara" is a spiritual love story set in the majestic landscape of Ladakh, in the Himalayas, about one man's quest to find enlightenment. Tashi, a brilliant young disciple, is just completing three years of solitary meditation in a remote hermitage. Brought out of a deep trance, Tashi is taken back to his ancient monastery where he slowly recovers his strenght, but his return has unexpected results. Despite a life devoted to the rigors of spiritual development, he finds himself experiencing a suprisingly profound sexual awakening. These feelings coincide with his journey to a village to perform a harvest blessing where he meets Pema, a beautiful young woman. For the first time, Tashi begins to question the spiritual values of his monastic existence, realizing that one has to experience worldly existence in order to renounce it. Through Tashi's eyes, this spiritual and moving love story chronicles one man's discovery of the promise of "Samsara" - the world.