Welcome to Love Theft and Other Entanglements
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Logline
A Palestinian car thief gets into the trouble of his life when he steals the wrong car. What he thought was an Israeli car and an easy way to make money in his impoverished refugee camp turns out to be a load of misfortune when he discovers a kidnapped Israeli soldier in the trunk
Synopsis
Mousa gets into the trouble of his life when he steals the wrong car. What he thought was an Israeli car and an easy way to make money in his impoverished Palestinian refugee camp turns out to be a load of misfortune when he discovers a kidnapped Israeli soldier in the trunk.
Mousa's hopes of paying the bribe that will guarantee him an exit visa out of the country and away from his wrecked love affair dissipate as he finds himself on the run from Palestinian militias and the Israeli intelligence.
Director's Statement
Grassroots Filmmaking
" Cinema to me has always been a medium where people from different backgrounds, with different skills and talents come together to create stories, stories to be shared with the world beyond the limitations of geography or culture. I have always kept my family and friends close and I feel blessed to have them by my side because without them my cinema would never be possible. I'm a result of life with them as a community and as an individual reflecting on our experiences, pains, happiness, dreams and nightmares."
This was the path I believed in for years and pursued. I always felt I had to create a model of storytelling and film production that would enable me, my family and my friends to create films and share compelling organic stories with the world against the odds of our country's limitations and challenges of funding.
Continue readingA Story About Redemption
Love, Theft and Other Entanglements is a universal story of an anti-hero and his journey towards redemption.
The lead character (Mousa) is neither the Palestinian national ideal typically found in many Palestinian films nor the pure victim of the occupation who is otherwise a perfect manifestation of good. He is not the typical antithesis of that either. He is not a national traitor or an Israeli collaborator. In fact, Mousa wants nothing to do with politics even though politics inadvertently come his way. He is an imperfect human being with many dislikeable traits. He is a car thief running away from his troubled past; a love affair tragically ruined by his actions. He steals to bribe a way out of the country and away from his wrecked past. But his actions only get him into deeper trouble.
Drama, Thriller, Fairytale
" Love, Theft and Other Entanglements is a drama, a thriller and a fairytale. While most of the extraordinary situations and coincidences faced by the lead character are inspired from direct experiences of mine, of people I know or from other real stories that affected me, I wanted to present them as merely a chain of challenges on the character's journey towards change. I did not want to focus on the events in of themselves or to present them in a realistic fashion against Palestine's political and economic backdrop. I wanted to focus on the character's universal story and not draw any more attention than necessary to the place and time period in which it unfolds.
Director's Biography
Muayad Alayan
Muayad Alayan is a Palestinian film director and cinematographer based in Jerusalem. After completing his studies in San Francisco and being part of its grassroots filmmaking culture, Alayan retuned to Palestine with the goal of making organic cinema by and about Palestinians as a community; a cinema made through the participation of people coming together to tell stories, against all odds and with means that creatively defy limitations.
At the age of 22, Alayan tested his vision with his first narrative short, Lesh Sabreen?, which was made with the participation of youth and young adults in his home village and focused on their experiences and concerns as youth living in Jerusalem and under occupation. The film was premiered in competition at the prestigious Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in France in 2009 and went on to compete at several other prestigious festivals such as Aspen Shortsfest, Cinemed, Palm Springs Shortfest and Dubai Film Festival, in addition to over 60 other festivals in 25 countries worldwide. The film was distributed widely on DVD and television and won the youth jury prize for Best International Film at the Cork Film Festival in Ireland as well as two honorary mentions at La Cittadella Del Corto in Italy and Al-Ismailia Short Film Festival in Egypt
Director's Filmography
Director
Love, Theft & Other Entanglements (Narrative Feature) 2015
Sacred Stones (Documentary) 2012
Mute (Short) 2010
Lesh Sabreen? (Short) 2009
Cinematographer
Love, Theft & Other Entanglements (Narrative Feature) 2015
Private Sun (Short) 2011
Mute (Short) 2010
Producer
Love, Theft & Other Entanglements (Narrative Feature) 2015
Private Sun (Short) 2011
Sacred Stones (Documentary) 2012
Mute (Short) 2010
Lesh Sabreen? (Short) 2009
Writer
Love, Theft & Other Entanglements (Narrative Feature) 2015
Mute (Short) 2010
Lesh Sabreen? (Short) 2009
Co-Producer's Biography
Rami Alayan
Rami Alayan is a designer and filmmaker based in San Francisco. His work centers around designing visual, narrative and interactive experiences that engage and captivate audiences. Whether the final product flickers on a big screen or responds to touches and clicks on a handheld device, Alayan's work is about imagining and designing what's not there but what's possible.
Alayan works with creative teams of filmmakers and software developers to turn a project's vision into a reality. He participates as a screenwriter and interaction designer as well as a producer and project manager. Alayan's educational background encompasses creative, technical as well as business training. He holds a professional certificate in feature film writing from the UCLA Extension School as well as a master's and two bachelor degrees in computer science and business management from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)