THE LAST PROJECTIONIST
Alex Bakri
KASKE FILM (Germany), Odeh Films (Palestine), documentary
Hussein is the last projectionist of the cinema in Jenin, which is renovated by a German NGO. He tries to impress the new bosses to get his old job back. But times have changed.
This film follows HUSSEIN DARBY's last days as the cinema's projectionist of his hometown Jenin, as he stands on its ruins. Ten years before that moment, a German NGO arrives in town aiming to renovate the cinema. Hussein shows the new bosses his skills. his efforts leads him to unusual situations. He meets an owner of the old cinema who lives in a mosque; a voluminous man in a bar called The Godfather, and a failed attempt to enter Israel. Hussein stretches his abilities to integrate into the new enterprise. He befriends a young German projectionist to score points with the NGO. But he doesn’t know that his new friend is the very same person who will take his old job. The NGO grows bigger and richer, and Hussein reduced to a small cog in the machinery of the foreign project. The film questions the meaning of development aid in general and who exactly does it serve and pays homage to a perished era of cinema culture in Palestine.
Alex Bakri / IMDb
ALEX BAKRI was born in 1978 in the Palestinian village Beane in the Galilee/ Israel, and studied Cinema and Media in the College of Technology and Media Instruction in Tel-Aviv. Since then he was working in nearly all departments of film making (Documentary and Fiction): He gathered experience as an actor in diverse cinema films such as THE TIME THAT REMAINS (2009, actor) by Elia Suleiman. Since 2007 he directed several short films AJAMEYOUN (short, 2007, director). Festivals: Voices Festival Toronto, Other Israel Festival New York) and video installations, then worked as a DOP and cameraman WAJD (2014, DOP) by Firas Roby, Award: best film at Lebanese Tyre International Short Film Festival 2014/ CINEMA JENIN (documentary, 2011, cameraman) by Marcus Vetter, Award: German Camera Prize in the section of cut 2012, Festivals: DIFF, IDFA) . As a film editor, he made a lot of short films and Video Art productions and then worked as an editor for the Palestinian TV Ramallah. Since 2013 he is working as a freelancer for German Film- and TV productions (companies: Basis Berlin, Kurhaus Productions Baden-Baden) as well as for the German TV (SWR Baden-Baden). He edited various documentaries, such as TASTE OF CEMENT (documentary, 2017, editor) by Ziad Kalthoum, which won, amongst other European and international festivals, in Locarno the European Doc Alliance Award 2017 was nominated for the European Film Award 2017, and for the Deutsche Filmpreis.
Director’s statement
As the film is situated in Palestine, I was concerned to find a narrative and visual style that’s able to create a cinematic world, which derives drama from the inner world of its characters, rather than putting the Palestinian struggle in the foreground. All pieces fell into place when I met HUSSEIN. He had an immense passion for cinema, and there was more hunger in him for self-realization than for bread. I`ve always had an affinity with marginalized characters such as Hussein, and it was only natural to tell the story of the cinema through the eyes of its last projectionist. As if years of projecting films, printed in him a natural knowledge of how to conduct himself on the other side of the lense, and in a way, he determined the aesthetic of the film he was the hero of. This film wishes to be a eulogy for Hussein; his metaphorical transcendence into the world he loved, immortalized on screen.
Where are we at?
Total budget: 150.000,00 EUR
Financing in place: 100.000,00 EUR
Sales agent: none
Territories available: World
Looking for at CineLink?
We are looking for other potential Co-producers, World Sales and broadcaster, in order to seek financing to complete the film. We would also like to use Cinelink as a platform to make the project more visible and also trigger interest from film festivals. The production is finished, and we are in the rough cut stage. Also, drama and editing consultancy would help the project to move forward.
Production Company profile
KASKE FILM produces creative essay and documentary films, which express aesthetic innovative and experimental ways of storytelling. Projects produced by Kaske Film got support from DFI, AFAC, Al Jazeera Doc, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Goethe Institute, BKM, Berliner Senat, Hot Docs Blue Ice, Atlas Workshops, CNAP, IDFA Bertha Fund, AlterCiné.