(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - The film is based on an autobiographical novel by Palestinian journalist Rula Jebreal that traces the Arab-Israeli conflict after 1948 from a Palestinian perspective. The lead role is played by Indian actress Freida Pinto of "Slumdog Millionaire" fame.
Israel has been angered by the movie showing and expressed dismay however General Assembly Spokesman Jean-Victor Nkolo has brushed aside the protest and said there was no politicization concerning the screening.
"Obviously it's a Palestinian story, but it's very important that an American Jewish person tell a Palestinian story," Schnabel, 58, said in an interview with AFP last year just before "Miral" was shown at the Venice film festival.
Like Jebreal, Miral grew up in an orphanage in the easteren section of the occupied al-Quds ('East Jerusalem') set up by a socialite from a wealthy Palestinian family, who one morning in 1948 came across 55 children who escaped a village taken over by Zionist murderers.
Adapted with the author, Schnabel's film traces the lives of these two women from the establishment of the orphanage until the Oslo peace accords of 1993.
"The whole point is because I'm an American Jew, and that's why it touched me because it's a big part of my life," Schnabel said.
"It's important for Muslims to hear that, it's important for Jewish people to hear that, and for Israel and for people everywhere," said Schnabel.
The film is being distributed in the United States by Harvey Weinstein, the celebrated Jewish-origin film mogul.
/106
