Ford Transit

This innovative 2002 feature by Hany Abu-Assad (Rana’s Wedding), a unique mix of documentary and fiction, follows a minibus driver transporting diverse cargoes of passengers in Ramallah and Jerusalem. Sometimes the film interviews Palestinian and Israeli artist/intellectual passengers about the ongoing conflicts and sometimes it constructs mininarratives about the bus’s progress and adventures between various checkpoints. Almost everything we hear sounds intelligent and reasonable, and the presentation, which resembles at times a variety show, keeps the proceedings absorbing and unpredictable throughout. In Arabic and Hebrew with subtitles. 80 min. To be projected from DigiBeta video. Also on the program: Dominique Dubosc’s The Illness Called Hope (37 min.), a quirky, attractively shot Palestinian travel diary. In French, Arabic, and Hebrew with subtitles. Gene Siskel Film Center.

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