News Time

It is ‘news time’, not ‘film time’ - this is how documentary filmmaker Azza El-Hassan explains the fact that she failed to find anyone willing to make a film with her. All the crewmembers are busy reporting the situation in Ramallah, which is deteriorating daily since the intifada. So she points her camera at the ghost town with its deserted streets, which challenge her to extract some beauty from them. Someone like her landlord, who declares his love to his giggling wife, whom he has known for twenty-five years. But they, too, leave the town when the war planes fly over, leaving El-Hassan with four boys who are the only ones who have not yet abandoned their neighbourhood. They talk about the daily threats they have to cope with, the stones they throw and the fears they have to suppress.