Hiam Abbas to star in 'Miral'

Film centers around Palestinian-Israeli conflict

By ALI JAAFAR, JOHN HOPEWELL

Julian Schnabel has tapped Palestinian thesp Hiam Abbas, who recently gained critical kudos for her perfs in Eran Riklis' "The Lemon Tree" and Tom McCarthy's "The Visitor," to star in "Miral," a film about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Project is an adaptation of Italo-Palestinian Rula Jebreal's book about the real-life Palestinian woman Hind Husseini, who started the Dar Al-Tifl orphanage in Jerusalem in the wake of the 1948 partition of Palestine and the creation of the state of Israel.

Pic will span the years 1948-94.

Schnabel has written the screenplay and spent the past few months trying to put his passion project together. The recent conflagration of violence in Gaza between the Israeli army and militant Palestinian group Hamas, which left some 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis dead, has made the project all the more vital.

Schnabel intends to lense the pic entirely on location in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

"I'm walking between the raindrops trying to get this film made," Schnabel told Daily Variety. "It's a very timely moment. It was terrible what happened there recently."

Jon Kilik, who worked previously with Schnabel on "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," will produce the pic with Pathe financing. The Gallic mini-major is also looking to work with an Israeli co-producer.

Principal photography begins April 19. Schnabel is in Israel scouting for locations and completing work on his cast and crew.

The instability in the region hasn't dampened Schnabel and Kilik's desire to make the film.

"So far we've only had 100% enthusiasm from the Israelis, Palestinians, Arabs, Muslim and Jews we've been talking to about the project," Kilik said. "The issue of the Palestinians and the Israelis is really at the forefront of so much of contemporary life here and beyond."

Jebreal, who was born in 1973 in Jerusalem before her family immigrated to Italy, has become a media darling in her adopted home. A TV journo as famous for her hard-hitting interviews with the likes of Italo premier Silvio Berlusconi as she is for her supermodel good looks, Jebreal has authored a number of bestselling books.

Schnabel and Kilik are hoping to complete "Miral" by spring 2010.