Director: IBTISAM MARA’ANA

Producers: BARAK HEYMANN, TIMNA GOLDSTEIN-HATTAV

Cinematography: IBTISAM MARA’ANA, ITAI RAZIEL, RAMI KATZAV 

Editors: EREZ LAUFER, MIRI LAUFER

Original Score: AVI BELLELI

Research: TALI SHAMIR-WERZBERGER

With the support of :

Channel 8/Makor Foundation for Cinema & TV

Duah Fares, a young woman from the Druze village of Sagur in the Galilee, was one of 12 finalists in the beauty pageant for Israeli-Arab women – ‘Lady Kul el-Arab.’ While Duah is preparing for the pageant, a warm relationship develops between her and fashion designer Jack Yaakob. Together they go to Tel Aviv to register Duah for the general Israeli beauty contest as well. Duah breezes through the preliminary selections for the contest and changes her name to Angelina.

Lady Kul el-Arab which begins as a glamorous film about a beauty pageant, turnes into the moving story of a family caught between cultures. In her fifth film director Ibtisam Mara’ana succeeds in delicately drawing the dramatic and touching portrait of a young woman who finds herself at the heart of a struggle which fascinates the whole country.

“Ibtisam Mara’ana – the director,  is a delicate complex artist who understands that her films have viewers of all kinds”

Goel Pinto, Ynet

PRESS LINKS

27 July 2008 Ynet: “A realm lost from the start” Film review (Israel, Hebrew)

• Best Documentary – ZagrebDox
• Best Documentary – Mediterranean Film Festival
• Special Mention – IDFA
• Best Director– New Delhi International Women Film Festival

• Jerusalem International Film Festival
• Mediterranean Film Festival, Italy
• Sguardi Altrove International Women Film Festival, Italy
• Bangkok International Film Festival
• International Documentary Film Festival, Palermo
• 2nd Israeli Documentary Film Festival, Hungary
• Farthest North Jewish Film Festival, Fairbanks, USA
• Chicago Festival of Israeli Cinema