Screening date: 21-11-2007 -- 17h30
The Colour of Olives

Like many Palestinian families, the Amers live surrounded by the West Bank "Separation Wall". Their daily lives are dominated by electrified fences, locks and a constant swarm of armed soldiers. Through a sensitive lens we discover the private world of all eight members of the family.


As their dramas unfold we catch a glimpse of their constant struggles and the small, endearing details that sustain them: including school friends, olive trees and two small donkeys. Through the story of one family, The Colour of Olives is a testimony to life under Israeli occupation. With polished, distanced cinematography, and texts written as silent film inter-titles quoting the inner world of the family members, Mexican director Carolina Rivas reveals a microcosm of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Country: Mexico/Palestine
Production: Daoud Sarhandi  thecolourofolives.com
Sales: La Famille Digitale
Year: 2006
Director: Carolina Rivas
Editing: Daoud Sarhandi
Cinematography: Daoud Sarhandi
DVD  –  color  –  97 min



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biography

Carolina Rivas studied at School of Writers of the General Society of Writers of Mexico (SOGEM), and at University Centre of Film Studies (CUEC-UNAM) where she specialised in direction and script writing. Carolina also completed theatre studies at Forum of Method Actors and Forum of Contemporary Theatre, Mexico City. In 2004 Carolina studied Butoh dance in Brazil with Yohito Ohno, Akira Kasai and Mitsuru Sasaki among others, and in the same year studied experimental cinema with film director Naomi Uman. Carolina Rivas' thesis short film Zona Cero won Best Fiction Film in Tampere, Best Film in Toronto Latino Alucine, among other awards; Zona Cero was also selected at Cannes Film Festival (2003). Carolina frequently has been published in the Mexican film magazine "Estudios Cinematograficos". She currently teaches in the Institute of Arts at the Autonomous University of Hidalgo, Mexico. The Colour of Olives is Carolina's first documentary film and first full-length film.

After studying film and photography in London (1982-1985) Daoud Sarhandi worked as a documentary film editor in Britain, where he cut numerous feature documentaries for Channel Four Television and the BBC. In October 1995 Daoud made his first visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he worked in the humanitarian industry during the Balkan wars and subsequent reconstruction periods - at first in Bosnia and later in Kosovo and Macedonia. While in Bosnia, in 1997 Daoud started work on a collection of political posters from the Bosnian War period; his book featuring this collection: "Evil Doesn't Live Here: Posters from the Bosnian War" was published in New York and London in 2001. Daoud moved to Mexico in 2002, from where he has been a regular contributor to "Eye" magazine - a London-based visual communication journal. In early 2004 Daoud made his first trip to the West Bank in order to interview Palestinian artists. He returned with Carolina Rivas later the same year to film The Colour of Olives. Daoud currently teaches at the Institute of Arts at the Autonomous University of Hidalgo, Mexico.


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