Wave Magazine Online Jacksonville University News Hub
JU Film Professor Bandar Albuliwi’s debut film “Peace after Marriage” is opening the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival on Saturday, Nov. 30 – the first time an Arab filmmaker’s work has been picked as the opening night movie.
“Peace After Marriage” won the Creative Promise Award at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival, and Albuliwi’s latest feature film, “East of Broadway,” was part of the 2011 Berlinale International Film Festival’s Talent Campus.
The comedic “Peace After Marriage” centers on a Palestinian in Brooklyn who tries to boost his social life by parlaying his U.S. citizenship into a green-card marriage. He discovers, however, that he’s marrying an Israeli.
“It’s refreshing to see a lighthearted Muslim-Jewish romantic comedy without a heavy political agenda,” Variety Magazine said in its review this month. “The audience award at Montpellier’s Cinemed Fest gives a good indication of the pic’s appeal.”
Albuliwi, a native New Yorker, began teaching at JU this year, stressing persistence, honesty and personal storytelling with his students.