Boston Palestine Film Festival 2008

Adapted from Elias Khoury’s epic novel of the same name, this landmark film spans five decades, starting in the years just before the Nakba (or “Catastrophe”) when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were driven from their homes and land. Intricately structured, Bab el Shams weaves together the life stories of a collection of refugees with graceful yet haunting results. Critic Jenny Gheith calls it “a tour de force” and adds “Nasrallah not only succeeds in his large-scale recreations of demanding passages in Palestinian history, but he infuses intimate scenes with a nuanced tenderness.”

Yousry Nasrallah was born to a Coptic-Christian family in Cairo. He graduated in economics and political science at Cairo University. He then worked as a film critic and directing assistant in Beirut from 1978 to 1982. He became an assistant to Youssef Chahine whose company, Misr International, would go on to produce his films. Nasrallah's films have dealt with themes of leftism, Islamic fundamentalism and expatriation.