''Inheritance'' () is a 2012 drama film directed by and starring

Hiam Abbass Hiam Abbass (; ; born 30 November 1960), also spelled Hiyam Abbas, is a Palestinian actress and film director with Israeli and French citizenship. She is known for her roles in films such as ''The Syrian Bride'' (2004), '' Paradise Now'' (2005) ...

in her feature film directorial debut. It premiered at the

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival (, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival held in Venice, Italy. It is the world's oldest film festival and one of the ...

and

Haifa International Film Festival The Haifa International Film Festival () is an annual film festival that takes place every autumn (between late September and late October), during the week-long holiday of Sukkot, in Haifa, Israel. History The festival was inaugurated in 1983 an ...

Plot

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

family living in a small Muslim village in

Galilee Galilee (; ; ; ) is a region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon consisting of two parts: the Upper Galilee (, ; , ) and the Lower Galilee (, ; , ). ''Galilee'' encompasses the area north of the Mount Carmel-Mount Gilboa ridge and ...

gathers to celebrate the wedding of one of their daughters, as war rages between

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

and

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

. Its many members symbolise a community struggling to maintain its identity, torn between modernity and tradition. In the midst of it all is a forbidden love story between the youngest daughter, Hajar (

Hafsia Herzi Hafsia Herzi (born 25 January 1987) is a French actress, screenwriter, and director. She is best known for her debut role in the award-winning Franco-Tunisian feature '' The Secret of the Grain'' for which she won the award for most promising actr ...

), who has returned from studying abroad, and her Christian lover ( Tom Payne). When their father falls into a coma and inches toward death, internal conflicts explode and the familial battles become as merciless as the outside war.

Cast

as Hajar *

as Samira *Yussef Abu Warda as Khalil * Ashraf Barhom as Ahmad *Ruba Blal as Saada *

Clara Khoury Clara Khoury (, ; born 29 December 1976) is an American actress of Palestinian origins. She works in film, television and theater. She grew up in Haifa, and now lives in California, US. Biography Clara Khoury is a Palestinian American actres ...

as Salma *

Makram Khoury Makram Jamil Khoury (, ) is an Israeli-Arab actor, born 30 May 1945 in Jerusalem. He was the youngest artist and the first Arab to win the Israel Prize, the highest civic honor in Israel. Biography Makram J. Khoury was born into a Palestin ...

as Abu Majd *Khalifa Natour as Majd * Tom Payne as Matthew *

Lina Soualem Lina Soualem is a French filmmaker, journalist, and actress. Early life and education Soualem was born in Paris, the daughter of actors Hiam Abbas and Zinedine Soualem and sister of actress Mouna Soualem. She is of Palestinian descent on her mothe ...

as Alya * Mouna Soualem as Lana *

Ali Suliman Ali Suliman (, ; born 1977) is an Israeli actor of Palestinian origin. He is known for his work on the series '' Jack Ryan'' and the film ''Paradise Now''. Early life Ali was born in Nazareth, Israel into a Palestinian-Muslim family. He gradu ...

as Marwan *Ula Tabari as Zeinab *G. A. Wasi as Cousin Ali

Production

Abbass has stated: "Generally, when you are speaking about Palestinians, you think of them in

Ramallah Ramallah ( , ; ) is a Palestinians, Palestinian city in the central West Bank, that serves as the administrative capital of the State of Palestine. It is situated on the Judaean Mountains, north of Jerusalem, at an average elevation of abov ...

, or the refugees in

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

. Instead I wanted to tell this important part of society: the Palestinians of Israel, who feel partially excluded from the country in which they live, which is why they try and preserve their identity through a strong family structure which makes them feel at home."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Inheritance 2012 films 2010s Hebrew-language films 2010s French-language films 2010s Arabic-language films 2010s English-language films Israeli drama films French drama films Turkish drama films 2012 drama films French multilingual films Israeli multilingual films Turkish multilingual films 2012 multilingual films 2010s French films Arabic-language Israeli films French-language Israeli films