Najwa Najjar
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Najwa Najjar (Arabic: نجوى نجار) is a film writer and director. She was born to a Jordanian father and Palestinian mother. She began her career making commercials and has worked in both documentary and fiction since 1999. Najjar lives in the Palestinian Territories.[1]
Her debut feature film Pomegranates and Myrrh won 10 awards,[which?] and was released theatrically and screened at over 80 international festivals.[2][3][4] When the film was first screened in Ramallah, there was public outcry by the Hamas Government in Gaza[5] over the film's portrayal of "what was deemed its 'unpatriotic' portrayal of an untrustworthy wife of a political prisoner."[6] At the Doha Tribeca Film Festival, the film won the Best Arab Film award.[7][8]
The 1999 documentary film Naim and Wadee’a was based on Najjar's family and includes the oral histories of Na’im Azar and Wadee’a Aghabi, a couple who were forced to leave their Jaffa home in 1948. The film won the Award for Films of Conflict and Resolution at the 2000 Hamptons International Film Festival.[9]
Her film, Eyes of a Thief, was the official Palestinian submission to the 87th Academy Awards.[1][10]
