Wedding in Galilee

The mukhtar of a Palestinian village under military rule asks for permission to hold his son’s wedding past the curfew imposed on the village. The military governor agrees on one condition: that he and his officers attend as guests of honour. The mukhtar’s acceptance splits his own household, and some of the younger men in the village plan to sabotage the celebration. Through the day the bride and the groom are prepared, the guests gather, and the tension rises as the evening goes on. Michel Khleifi’s film is generally counted as the first feature made in Palestine by a Palestinian director, and it won the International Critics Prize at Cannes in 1987. It is also the film that brought Palestinian cinema onto the international circuit.