Italy’s Eagle Pictures Swoops on Farah Nabulsi’s Palestine-Set ‘The Teacher’ As Goodfellas Launches Sales in Cannes (EXCLUSIVE)
variety.comNick Vivarelli International Correspondent Palestinian-British filmmaker Farah Nabulsi’s upcoming drama “The Teacher,” which is shot and set in Palestine’s Left Bank, has been acquired by top Italian indie distributor Eagle Pictures just as Vincent Maraval’s Goodfellas launches sales on the timely title in Cannes.
Goodfellas, formerly known as Wild Bunch, on Thursday will be presenting to buyers the almost completed film that takes its cue from a real prisoners swap that took place in 2011 when Israel freed more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for one soldier who had been kidnapped by Palestinian militants.
In “The Teacher” a Palestinian school teacher played by Saleh Bakri (“Costa Brava, Lebanon”) struggles to reconcile his commitment to political resistance with his emotional support for one of his students.
There is also a subplot involving his romantic relationship with a British volunteer worker, played by Imogen Poots (“The Father”). “It takes place at a moment where an Israeli-Jewish-American soldier has been kidnapped by Palestinians for three weeks.
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