Across the Great Divide to a Hollywood Ending

When a Jewish Director and a Palestinian Writer Found Common Ground in a Script, a Cross-Cultural Romance Blossomed. Following a recent screening of “Miral,” a new film about a young Palestinian woman by the Jewish-American director Julian Schnabel, Dan Rather moderated a panel that included Mr. Schnabel, his girlfriend Rula Jebreal, on whose autobiographical novel the film is based, and several others. As the guests settled into their seats, it became clear that Ms. Jebreal’s microphone was malfunctioning. No one could hear her voice. It may only have been a technical glitch, but since this screening was being held in the main hall of the United Nations General Assembly, the moment seemed emblematic.

“Miral,” which is being distributed by the Weinstein Co., follows the title character, played by Freida Pinto, as she comes of age amid a reality of war and occupation. Politics intrude on Miral’s educational, her first love, and her relationship with her father, but they are hardly the focus of the film. Still, in advance of the U.N. event, some Jewish groups, such as the American Jewish Committee and the Simon Wiesenthal Center—not to mention the nation of Israel—condemned the location of the screening.

“[Producer] Harvey Weinstein is very generous and pro-Israel, and I’m certain that in the past he’s been at our dinners,” said Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Wiesenthal Center and an Academy Award-winning producer in his own right. “But the U.N. is a political body with a controversial record on the Middle East.” (Messrs. Schnabel and Weinstein said they extended invitations to their critics, but Mr. Hier and a spokesperson for the AJC each insisted they weren’t invited to the U.N. event.)

A day after the screening, in the sun-soaked kitchen of Mr. Schnabel’s 11th Street palace of a home, Ms. Jebreal laughed about the microphone incident, but acknowledged its symbolism. In fact, she said, it took the presence of Mr. Schnabel—as a partner and a filmmaker of international stature—to amplify her story. “In all of Julian’s films, he always gave a voice for the people who are not heard,” she said. “He uses his privilege to speak about them, for them.”

‘Miral’ – Official Trailer

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