www.bbc.co.uk 9 July, 2004
The West Bank's first international film festival was held in Ramallah last week but Israeli films were not shown.
Festival head Adam Zoabi said "we can't build normal relations with Israel as long as there is an occupation in the Palestinian territories".
The six-day festival, showing 80 films, was the first event staged at the town's new cultural centre.
Foreign guests included British documentary-maker Nick Broomfield.
Broomfield introduced his film Aileen, The Life and Death of a Serial Killer, at the festival. Its star, Charlize Theron, won an Oscar for her starring role in it earlier this year.
The festival also featured US director Spike Lee's 25th Hour, and French film-maker Jean-Luc Godard's latest, Notre Musique (Our Music), which will get its West Bank premiere at the event.
The film festival was held at the same time as the Jerusalem Film Festival, but Mr Zoabi said the Palestinian festival was not designed to try and upstage the Israelis.
He said the opening of the new cultural centre, which had been scheduled for June, had been delayed because it was not ready on time. |