BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH

FREE OUTDOOR SCREENING | AUGUST 13 | DOORS 7 PM | @FORT YORK

PRESENTED BY TORONTO PALESTINE FILM FESTIVAL
WITH TORONTO OUTDOOR PICTURE SHOW AS PART OF TOPS & FRIENDS

Over the course of Summer 2021, Toronto Outdoor Picture Show (TOPS) proudly presents TOPS & Friends, a multi-week programme of film screenings celebrating community and cinema in the great outdoors. After successfully presenting Toronto’s first in-person festival of 2020, safely and memorably, TOPS & Friends is returning once again to the walls of Fort York National Historic Site. TPFF is thrilled to guest curate the screening on August 13th with the award-winning film, Between Heaven and Earth - a fan favourite!

BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH
NAJWA NAJJA
PALESTINE,LUXEMBOURG,ICELAND - 2019

Inspired by several historical events, Najwa Najjar’s third film is a modern-day road-trip drama. Nazareth –born Salma and Tamer, the son of a revolutionary killed in Beirut, have decided to divorce after five years of marriage in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. For the first time, Tamer is given a three day permit to cross the Israeli checkpoint to file for divorce in the courts of Nazareth. However, things do not go as planned when the court’s clerk refused to process the divorce after he confronts them with a secret about Tamer's father's past - an affair with an Iraqi Jewish woman in the 1950s. With only 72 hours to find the father's lover to get the documents needed to finalize the divorces before Tamer's permit expires, the couple sets out on journey that takes them between the present and the past.

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS

We're so excited to kick off our 12th Toronto Palestine Film Festival: Sept 18-22, 2019 with TPFF's most popular summer event! Join us under the stars at Christie Pits for an evening of music, food and fun before we watch the Oscar-submitted, Wajib the Film واجب! (co-presented with the Toronto Outdoor Picture Show)

This event is free and open to the public.

ABOUT WAJIB
Abu Shadi, 65, is a divorced father and a school teacher living in Nazareth. After his daughter’s wedding in one month he will be living alone. Shadi, his architect son, arrives from Rome after years abroad to help his father in hand delivering the wedding invitations to each guest as per local Palestinian custom. As the estranged pair spend the day together, the tense details of their relationship come to a head challenging their fragile and very different lives. Winner of 29 international awards including Best Film in Mar Del Plata, Amiens, Kerala, Kosovo and Dubai, Wajib is Palestininan filmmaker Annemarie Jacir's third feature film.

96 min
Annemarie Jacir
Fiction
Palestine, Jordan

Featuring Mahmoud Asfa, Ruba Blal, Saleh Bakri and many more

Event Details
TPFF's annual outdoor screening at Christie Pits Park was held on August 7, 2015. By popular demand from our audiences, Annemarie Jacir's "When I Saw You" was screened.

We screened When I saw you directed by Annemarie Jacir on the opening night of TPFF 2013, with a sold out screening at Bloor Cinema.

Film Synopisis:

Winner of Best Asian Film at the Berlin International Film Festival, Best Arab Film in Abu Dhabi and Palestine's 2013 Oscar Entry, Annemarie Jacir's second feature film takes place in 1967 Jordan when the world is alive with change: brimming with reawakened energy, new styles, music and an infectious sense of hope. In Jordan, a different kind of change is underway as tens of thousands of refugees pour across the border from Palestine. Having been separated from his father in the chaos of war, Tarek, 11, and his mother Ghaydaa, are amongst this latest wave of refugees. Placed in “temporary” refugee camps made up of tents and prefab houses until they would be able to return, they wait, like the generation before them who arrived in 1948. With difficulties adjusting to life in Harir camp and a longing to be reunited with his father, Tarek searches a way out, and discovers a new hope emerging with the times. Eventually his free spirit and curious nature lead him to a group of people on a journey that will change their lives.

Winner of the NETPAC Award for Best Asian Film at Berlin International Film Festival;
Winner of Best Arab Film, New Horizons, Abu Dhabi Film Festival;
Jury Prize at the Cairo International Film Festival;
Special Jury Prize at the Oran Arab Film Festival;
Don Quixote Award at the Carthage International Film Festival;
Palestine's 2013 Official Oscar Entry for Best Foreign Language Film;
Nominated for Young Artists Award - Mahmoud Asfa, Hollywood

Visit Film Website

Watch Trailer

71 min
Rashid Masharawi
Fiction
2008 - Palestine/Tunisia/The Netherlands

Featuring Mohammad Bakri , Saleh Bakri, Areen Omari, Nour Zoubi and many more

The annual TPFF Party in the Pits will take place on Friday, August 8th, 2014 at 8PM at Christie Pits Park. Join us for a free screening of acclaimed Palestinian director Rashid Masharawi (Palestine Stereo, Land of the Story), and TPFF’s 2009 closing night film Laila's Birthday!

Laila's Birthday is a wry, dark comedy tracing a day in the life of a judge-turned-taxi driver.As he leaves to start his day, Abu Laila (played by Mohammad Bakri) is reminded by his wife to come home early with a cake for their daughter’s birthday. However, Abu Laila, a law-abiding judge who drives a taxi to make ends meet, faces numerous obstacles as he navigates the absurdity occupation and bureaucracy in Ramallah to complete his most important mission. Laila’s Birthday is a powerful and humorous portrait of ordinary Palestinians living in impossible circumstances in occupied Ramallah. Watch the trailer here.

We screened Laila's Birthday at our 2009 closing night! It was a wildly successful evening, the theatre was packed and energy was high. We are looking forward to sharing this wonderful film with Toronto audiences again!

Visit Film Website

105 min
Annemarie Jacir
Fiction
2008 - Palestine/France

Featuring Suheir Hammad, Saleh Bakri, Riyad Ideis and many more

The annual TPFF Party in the Pits will take place on Friday, July 5th, 2013 at 8PM at Christie Pits Park. Join us for a free screening of Annemarie Jacir's Salt of this Sea and some delicious treats!

Salt of this Sea tells the story of Soraya, born in Brooklyn in a working class community of Palestinian refugees, who discovers that her grandfather's savings were frozen in a bank account in Jaffa when he was exiled in 1948. Stubborn, passionate and determined to reclaim what is hers, she fulfills her life-long dream of "returning" to Palestine. Watch the trailer here.

We screened Salt of this Sea on the opening night of the very first Toronto Palestine Film Festival. It was a wildly successful evening, the theatre was packed and energy was high. Starring actress and acclaimed spoken word poet Suheir Hammad was in attendance and participated in an audience Q&A after the screening. We are looking forward to sharing this wonderful film with Toronto audiences again!

Visit Film Website

Join the Toronto Palestine Film Festival (TPFF) on Friday, July 13th for an evening of Palestinian treats, games and an outdoor screening of the award winning film, Budrus, by Julia Bacha. We screened Budrus as the closing night film back in 2010 to a sold out theatre of 850+. Here’s your chance to see the film if you missed it (or if you simply want to watch it again!). This time, we’re bringing it back to Toronto as part of the TPFF 2012 summer outdoor screening. We will also have some delicious Palestinian food, cotton candy, popcorn and of course, music, for you to enjoy before the screening. And as always, admission to all of our summer events is free. The party starts at 7pm and film will screen after sunset (around 9pm). Hope you see you all there!

Javier Corcueran and Fermin Muguruza
2009

Featuring Hip-Hop Group DAM band , Khalas band , Amal Murkus, Safaa Arapiyat, Trio Joubran, Sabreen

Checkpoint Rock, directed by Javier Corcueran and Fermin Muguruza, shines a spotlight on music in Palestine. Beginning with renowned musician Marcel Khalife at Mahmoud Darwish’s funeral, the film traverses Palestine/Israel and presents a diverse range of musical performances along the way. Travel through Palestine with some of its best-known, most inspiring musicians from Habib Al Deek and Muthana Sha’baan, to rappers DAM and Safaa Arapiyat, the celebrated Le Trio Joubran and the soul singer Amal Murkus! Checkpoint Rock was the closing night film of TPFF 2009. It was screened to a sold-out theatre, with over 850 people in attendance. If you didn’t get to see the film then, here is your chance to check it out this summer!

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