ABOUT THE PROJECT
LOGLINE
A young Palestinian man living in Jerusalem must save his family when a mythical Ghouleh (female demon) from his grandmother’s folktales appears in his townand threatens his family’s home.
SYNOPSIS
THE VISITOR is a dark, fantastical film about a young, Palestinian man living in Jerusalem who must save his family when a mythical ghouleh (female demon) from his grandmother’s folktales appears in his town and threatens his family’s home.
The film paints a tale of present-day horrors, but told in the wondrous style of Palestinian folklore.
The lurking theme of the film is that life under an occupation is just as sinister as the shapeshifting ghouleh that haunts Kareem and his family.
According to his Teta’s (grandmother’s) folktales, this terrifying ghouleh shows up as a bad omen when disaster is about to strike. It is the same ghouleh that his Teta mistakenly befriended when she was a child, and who she blames for her childhood home being taken away, causing Teta to be a refugee in her own land. She warns that the ghouleh she can take the shape of any being or animal she touches, and that one look at her will scare the soul out of your body.
But there are things in the world scarier than folktales.
Eerie images of empty seats in a children’s classroom of their missing friends. Surveillance drones buzzing loudly in the sky during celebrations. Parents wearing paper photo-necklaces of their graduating kids who were killed at checkpoints. Families blindfolded during house raids.
But the film is not about glorifying trauma. It is, in its essence, a celebration and love letter to Palestinian folktales, culture and music like audiences have never been treated to before.
PROJECT TYPE Narrative Feature
DIRECTOR Rolla Selbak
SCREENWRITER Rolla Selbak
PRODUCER Julie Bersani
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER Cherien Dabis
WEBSITE blackpoppyproductions.com/in-development-1/the-visitor
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ID: 600