VILLA TOUMA World Cinema

VILLA TOUMA shines light on the Palestinian aristocracy – nearly forgotten since the 1967 Israeli occupation. Filmmaker Suha Arraf makes use of the static camera and confines most of this reclusive domestic melodrama to a Ramallah house – where a Palestinian teenage orphan is sent to live with her three aristocrat aunts. The women’s efforts to find suitable Christian bachelors for their niece are hindered by their antiquated matchmaking schemes. This is a story about resisting displaced status, and how maintaining identity remains more difficult than declaring one’s vision of self, especially in the face of complex outside forces. Bankrolled by Israelis and Germans, VILLA TOUMA is Palestinian-born Arraf’s inaugural narrative feature.