The Gate of Sun

A couple makes love in the early hours of the morning. The woman rises from bed, gets dressed, goes into the street, and calls out to a neighbor - whom she then assassinates. Thus begins Egyptian director Yousry Nasrallah's adaptation of Lebanese writer Elias Khoury's epic novel of fifty years of Palestinian dispossession, exile, and resistance. The film follows the flight of Younes, his wife Nahila, and those around them from their village in northern Palestine to a refugee camp in Lebanon. Some vow to continue the struggle, most simply struggle to survive. Nasrallah, who co-wrote the screenplay with Khoury and Mohamed Soueid, unsparingly details the impact of the nakhba (disaster) on Palestinian life and society, while showing the refugees' often-contentious relationship with their reluctant Lebanese hosts.