“La Petite Jerusalem (Little Jerusalem)” to be shown April 23 as part of
Tournées French Film Festival at CCA
Contact:
Liz VanLandingham, 303-360-4744 or 303-854-7873
Liz.Vanlandingham@CCAurora.edu OR
Sarah Grace Pretzer, 303-360-4728
Sarah.Pretzer@CCAurora.edu
Liz.Vanlandingham@CCAurora.edu OR
Sarah Grace Pretzer, 303-360-4728
Sarah.Pretzer@CCAurora.edu
For immediate release: April 23, 2009
“La Petite Jerusalem (Little Jerusalem)” will be
shown at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 23, and the screening is free and open
to the public. The film will be shown during the Tournées French Film
Festival, offered by the Colorado Film School at the Community College of
Aurora through April.
The Festival is made possible with the support of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy and the French Ministry of Culture (CNC).
La Petite Jerusalem is the nickname of Sarcelles, a low-income housing neighborhood near Paris. Among the high number of Jewish immigrants who live there, a Tunisian family of eight shares a cramped apartment: Laura (a French-born, 18-year-old student), her sister Mathilde, their mother, Mathilde’s husband Ariel, and the couple’s four children. Independent and strong-willed, Laura refuses Ariel’s orthodoxy and her mother’s superstition. Instead, she throws herself into the study of Kant, which leads her to take evening walks. On one such walk, she meets an Algerian-Muslim immigrant named Djamel. While Laura’s life is disrupted by their love affair, her sister Mathilde finds out that her husband is cheating on her. Mathilde turns to a religious counselor who opens her eyes to the possibility of sexual pleasure within marriage and to the different ways in which religious faith can be enacted. Her struggling marriage is revived, but Laura’s relationship with Djamel becomes complicated by his family’s disapproval of her. All this is taking place while tensions between Muslim and Jewish communities are rising. In her first feature film, Karin Albou delicately depicts the intimate lives of two women while raising questions of religious interpretation, freedom, sexuality and family relationships. CCA/CFS notes that viewer discretion is advised.
Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis in the School’s state-of-the-art theater, 9075 E. Lowry Blvd., Building 965, Denver, CO 80230. For a complete listing of the films to be screened during the Festival, visit http://www.coloradofilmschool.net/frenchfilm/.
The Festival is made possible with the support of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy and the French Ministry of Culture (CNC).
La Petite Jerusalem is the nickname of Sarcelles, a low-income housing neighborhood near Paris. Among the high number of Jewish immigrants who live there, a Tunisian family of eight shares a cramped apartment: Laura (a French-born, 18-year-old student), her sister Mathilde, their mother, Mathilde’s husband Ariel, and the couple’s four children. Independent and strong-willed, Laura refuses Ariel’s orthodoxy and her mother’s superstition. Instead, she throws herself into the study of Kant, which leads her to take evening walks. On one such walk, she meets an Algerian-Muslim immigrant named Djamel. While Laura’s life is disrupted by their love affair, her sister Mathilde finds out that her husband is cheating on her. Mathilde turns to a religious counselor who opens her eyes to the possibility of sexual pleasure within marriage and to the different ways in which religious faith can be enacted. Her struggling marriage is revived, but Laura’s relationship with Djamel becomes complicated by his family’s disapproval of her. All this is taking place while tensions between Muslim and Jewish communities are rising. In her first feature film, Karin Albou delicately depicts the intimate lives of two women while raising questions of religious interpretation, freedom, sexuality and family relationships. CCA/CFS notes that viewer discretion is advised.
Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis in the School’s state-of-the-art theater, 9075 E. Lowry Blvd., Building 965, Denver, CO 80230. For a complete listing of the films to be screened during the Festival, visit http://www.coloradofilmschool.net/frenchfilm/.
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