After Miramax handled the US rights for Julian Schnabel‘s last Oscar-nominated film The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, the Weinstein Company now has the domestic rights for his next, Miral. The film, which stars Freida Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire), Willem Dafoe (Antichrist), Hiam Abbass (The Limits of Control), and Vanessa Redgrave (Atonement) will be released later this year. Check out the plot below via Variety.
Based on the novel by Rula Jebreal (who also penned the screenplay), the movie revolves around a real-life orphanage established by a Palestinian woman (Abbass) following the 1948 creation of the Israeli state. (Pinto) was sent to the orphanage in 1978. When, later in life, she goes to teach at a refugee camp and falls for an activist, Miral is torn between resistance and education as separate paths to political change.
The fantastic cinematographer Eric Gautier (Into The Wild, Summer Hours, Wild Grass, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints) is behind this one. I loved Diving Bell and the Butterfly so this is one of my most anticipated films this year.
Miral will premiere at the Venice Film Festival this September.
Are you excited we will definitely be seeing Miral here stateside?