Salt of This Sea (2008) directed by Anne Marie Jacir
A young woman travels to her homeland on a short two week visa; within that two weeks, she finds a job, gets fired from that job, meets a nice guy, robs a bank, and is then on the lam with an expired visa. Sound silly. It was, save for the fact that the young woman is an exiled Palestinian from NYC returning to reclaim what belonged to her grandfather. Her Grandfather's house, in Jaffa, is of course now owned and occupied by an Israeli. Her Grandfather's money is also a relic of the 1948 Palestinian exodus; the money's gone, but the bank remains. Salt of This Sea is excellent at pointing out the contrasts between the diaspora and the natives - similar frustrations, similar dreams, different perspectives. But the melodrama comes off as contrived and, at times, overdone. Another video offering that looked pretty good other than the fact that the video would go through a sort of stutter. Imagine if there was a rock stuck in the wheel of the video: every five seconds a slight bump. Don't ask for a more technical explanation from me, but it was pretty distracting...
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