Photo: Yousry Nasrallah's The Gate of the Sun
When Notre Musique screened at the Toronto Film Festival, Chantal Akerman—who's never struck me as a filmmaker prone to knee-jerk sentimentality—accused Jean-Luc Godard of anti-Semitism. Judging by the handful of walkouts during the press screening of Yousry Nasrallah's four-and-a-half hour epic Gate of the Sun at the New York Film Festival, Akerman isn't the only one who confuses criticism of the Israeli state and its policies concerning Palestine for anti-Jewish or anti-Christian resentment. Adapted from Lebanese writer Elias Khoury's novel of the same name, Nasrallah's film is the spiritual and aesthetic cousin of Emir Kusturica's Underground, another stirring work of magical realist activism that documents over 50 years in the lives of an oppressed people. Ed Gonzalez
When Notre Musique screened at the Toronto Film Festival, Chantal Akerman—who's never struck me as a filmmaker prone to knee-jerk sentimentality—accused Jean-Luc Godard of anti-Semitism. Judging by the handful of walkouts during the press screening of Yousry Nasrallah's four-and-a-half hour epic Gate of the Sun at the New York Film Festival, Akerman isn't the only one who confuses criticism of the Israeli state and its policies concerning Palestine for anti-Jewish or anti-Christian resentment. Adapted from Lebanese writer Elias Khoury's novel of the same name, Nasrallah's film is the spiritual and aesthetic cousin of Emir Kusturica's Underground, another stirring work of magical realist activism that documents over 50 years in the lives of an oppressed people. Ed Gonzalez
