Children of fire

Nablus, situated in the Israeli Occupied West Bank and home to 120,000 exiled Palestinians is also the home of filmmaker Mai Masri. It is 9 September 1989 and fourteen years since Mai has been in Nablus when she returns to her hometown to document Palestinian life since the beginning of the Intifada. Mai very quickly finds out that Nablus is not the peaceful town where she grew up - it is instead a place of violence, death, fear and tension, where young children have been robbed of their innocence and often their lives. The Palestinians in Nablus are constantly under survellience the Israeli Army which only serves to heighten the frustration and determination of the younger generation to fight for their freedom and confront the occupiers head-on, albeit with weapons of stones. Children as young as five are aware of their situation as exiles and from the ages of six and seven, many will become street-fighters, their games often replicating real life. Through these children’s personal stories and the violent images in their childish paintings, as well as some rather disturbing film footage of the Israeli soldiers in action, Mai Masri presents an uncompromising and courageous portrayal of Nablus and the children of the Intifada. (Awards: Cairo Television Festival 1995; Feminin Pluriel Festival) In English and Arabic with English subtitles.