these paintings show how much atef worked on abstracting north african visuals to almost unrecognizable, yet striking, shapes and colors.

so far, atef has managed to use a language that is already familiar, but still not yet his own.

one advantage he has over other painters: the uniqueness of his tortuous itinirary.

one day his brush strokes (if he uses them) will be uniquely his and nobody will be able to copy his style.

his style is slowly emerging, the way one starts to appreciate the abstract and flat midwestern landscape

the movie "mikey & nickey" was simple, direct and dense

just two characters, peter falk and john cassavettes, were able to carry the 106-minute movie from midnight to sunrise.

time and space were restricted, like a short story, a one-act play, or a poem

just as in life, it is always difficult to know who's on your side.

the city, i noticed, was seen as a negative hostile place for any meaningful human existence

the scene where mikey and nickey visit a girl friend is very powerful and the implied emotional violence is shocking

throughout the movie i wondered how the filmmaker, technically, created this immediate and documentary style movie.

the movie, with its density and strong dialogue, may have been written as a play to be performed on stage.

it is reminiscent of "looking back in anger"

arna's children was touching with the ambivalence of its director. one can design to be neutral, without forgetting that this is a luxury not many have.

i wondered why all these palestinian children who worked in the theater ended up falling back into essentialism.

arna connected to the palestinian children in complex ways because she saw the anger these kids felt.

the kids preserved an abstract view of "jews", yet connected on a very basic human level to arna.

when the kids grew up (it only took them few years), i wonder if they hesitated shooting at the israeli army; Giuliano, their mentor, was in the army for a while. i wonder if it occured to them that there might be a "giuliano" among the israeli army they were shooting at.

giuliano's relationship with his mother arna reminded me of the special connection roland barthes had with his mother.

giuliano is an israeli actor who, with his mother arna, built this theater in jennin, the west bank, and trained palestinian children. did they ever think to bring israeli children to the west bank and meet these palestinians (suffocated within their own neighborhoods)?

arna's last visit to jennin was so touching because she knew she was dying, and so did every body else.