Private (film)
Encyclopedia
Private is a 2004
film
directed by Saverio Costanzo
. A debut film by the director, the film is a minimalist psychological drama about a Palestinian
family of seven suddenly confronted with a volatile situation in their home that in many ways reflects the larger ongoing conflict
between Palestinians and Israel
.
Initially selected as the official entry from Italy
for the foreign language film category at the 78th Academy Awards
, Private was disqualified as its main spoken language is not in Italian
(a rule that was changed, effective with the next year's Oscars
, partly due to this film). The film has received the Golden Leopard (best film) award at the 57th Locarno International Film Festival
.
2004 in film
The year 2004 in film involved some significant events. Major releases of sequels took place. It included blockbuster films like Shrek 2, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, The Passion of the Christ, Meet the Fockers, Blade: Trinity, Spider-Man 2, Alien vs. Predator, Kill Bill Vol...
film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
directed by Saverio Costanzo
Saverio Costanzo
Saverio Costanzo is an Italian film director.He was born in Rome, the son of journalist and TV presenter Maurizio Costanzo. His debut was Private in 2004. In 2007 his second feature In memoria di me was presented at the 57th Berlin Film Festival...
. A debut film by the director, the film is a minimalist psychological drama about a Palestinian
Palestinian people
The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...
family of seven suddenly confronted with a volatile situation in their home that in many ways reflects the larger ongoing conflict
Israeli-Palestinian conflict
The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The conflict is wide-ranging, and the term is also used in reference to the earlier phases of the same conflict, between Jewish and Zionist yishuv and the Arab population living in Palestine under Ottoman or...
between Palestinians and Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
.
Initially selected as the official entry from Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
for the foreign language film category at the 78th Academy Awards
78th Academy Awards
The 78th Academy Awards honored the best films of 2005 and were held on March 5, 2006, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California. They were hosted by The Daily Show host Jon Stewart, with Tom Kane making his first appearance as the show's announcer...
, Private was disqualified as its main spoken language is not in Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
(a rule that was changed, effective with the next year's Oscars
79th Academy Awards
The 79th Academy Awards ceremony , honored the best films of 2006 and took place on February 25, 2007 at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood on ABC. Ellen DeGeneres hosted the ceremony for the first time. The producer was Laura Ziskin. The announcers were Don LaFontaine and Gina Tuttle.The nominees were...
, partly due to this film). The film has received the Golden Leopard (best film) award at the 57th Locarno International Film Festival
Locarno International Film Festival
The Film Festival Locarno is an international film festival held annually in the city of Locarno, Switzerland since 1946. After Cannes and Venice and together with Karlovy Vary, Locarno is the Film Festival with the longest history...
.
Plot
Mohammad, his wife and their five children live in a large, isolated house located halfway between a Palestinian village and an Israeli settlement. The house, in the crossfire of the two sides, is a strategic lookout point that the Israeli army decides to seize, confining the family to a few downstairs rooms in daytime and a single room at night. Mohammad refuses to leave this home and, reinforced by his principles against violence, decides to find a way to keep his family together in the house until the Israeli soldiers move on.Main cast
- Mohammad BakriMohammad BakriMohammad Bakri is an Israeli Arab actor and director, known throughout Israel and the Arab world.-Early life:...
— Mohammad B - Lior MillerLior MillerLior Miller is an Israeli film and television actor. He is also a model and popular-culture icon.-Career:He was first discovered after appearing in a commercial for Castro clothing in which he flashed himself....
— Commander Ofer - Hend Ayoub — Mariam B
- Tomer Russo — Private Eial
- Arin Omary — Samiah B
Reviews
- Hollywood Reporter: "While the film is ultimately too limited in its scope to have much lingering impact, it does make for a thoughtful addition to the growing list of films dealing with the Israeli/Palestinian conflict" http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/reviews/review_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001613229
- Los Angeles TimesLos Angeles TimesThe Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
: "An appropriately and deliberately gritty, drab-looking and edgy picture" http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/reviews/cl-et-private2dec02,0,7437902.story - New York Times: "Midnight raid by Israeli soldiers turns the home of a Palestinian family into an occupied territory in Saverio Constanzo's politically loaded allegory"
- New York PostNew York PostThe New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
: "The Palestinian characters are so thinly conceived that they might as well be named Victims One through Seven, and they're far more developed than the Israeli characters."http://www.nypost.com/movies/57652.htm - New York Daily NewsNew York Daily NewsThe Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011....
: "Shot with digital cameras, "Private" has a gritty - sometimes grainy - documentary urgency that heightens the inherent tension, keeping viewers unsettled with the notion that a tragedy is always imminent." http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/moviereviews/story/366837p-312094c.html - L.A. Weekly: "The young Italian director Saverio Costanzo puts an unnervingly intimate twist on the costs of military occupation in this aptly claustrophobic drama."http://www.laweekly.com/film/film_results.php?showid=3676&Sumbit.x=58&Sumbit.y=15
- The TimesThe TimesThe Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
: "Saverio Costanzo’s Italian-made film adopts a stripped-down, naturalistic style to capture the tension as the squad leader proves equally fearsome to his men and the father’s angry children begin small acts of rebellion that threaten an uneasy equilibrium. Emotional and rational arguments fuel the occasionally heavy-handed script but the Israeli-Palestinian cast is strong in a film that shows how both sides are victims of violence." http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,18709-1618622,00.html - EmpireEmpire (magazine)Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. From the first issue in July 1989, the magazine was edited by Barry McIlheney and published by Emap. Bauer purchased Emap Consumer Media in early 2008...
: "The script is occasionally heavy-handed in laying out motivation and meaning, but excellent performances from the Israeli-Palestinian cast and a chilling moral elevate this to more than 'issue film' status. " http://www.empireonline.com/incinemas/ReviewComplete.asp?FID=11135 - CounterPunchCounterpunchCounterpunch can refer to:* Counterpunch , a punch in boxing* CounterPunch, a bi-weekly political newsletter* Counterpunch , a type of punch used in traditional typography* Punch-Counterpunch, a Transformers character...
: "The film dwells on the intra-family tensions in dealing with the occupation of their house and focuses on the friction arising from the characters' differing views on how to confront the soldiers. The film's focus is how to resist, with a strong suggestion that the resistance should be non-violent. However, the director fails to ask the key question and never really explains why the soldiers invaded this house or why there are any tensions between Israelis and Palestinians." http://www.counterpunch.org/rooij05202005.html
External links
- rottentomatoes: Private
- Movie review offoffoff
- "A Film in Search of a Cliché" counterpunch
- "Filming the occupation" Three Monkeys Online
- "Political thriller will rattle soul" Orlando Sentinel
- Interview: Saverio Costanzo BBC
- "Home Makeover" Orlando Weekly
- Review: Private Slant Magazine