Lipstikka

2009, 3 minutes

A tense psychological drama, depicts the emotional and sexual bonds between two Palestinian women.

Have you ever experienced an event in your past that was so painful you modified its memory? Have you ever shut out the past? Lipstikka is a story about memory. A tense psychological drama, depicts the emotional and sexual bonds between two Palestinian women who try to escape the memory of their troubled past. But unable to bury their scars, the two will finally need to uncover truths beyond masked lies, altered memories and dormant emotions. The film carefully addresses contemporary issues such as race, sexuality, politics and love. At its core there is a strong human relationship story between two women with universal themes. The story begins in Ramallah. The Palestinian Uprising. The first Intifada. There’s violence. There’s conflict. Arabs hate Jews. Jews hate Arabs. And in the midst of it are two Palestinian Girls who are trying to get on with their life. Inam, vibrant, sexy, and Christian. Lara, shy, demure, and Muslim. And between them an adolescent attraction bordering on infatuation. It’s Lara’s birthday and they’re determined to see a movie. They break the curfew. They catch an illegal taxi to the outskirts of East Jerusalem. They cross through Jerusalem and over some rocky ground, secretly, into West Jerusalem. They sneak into a movie theatre. They see two Israeli soldiers, and the soldiers see them. Something happens. Years later Lara is now living in England and married to an English husband. She sees her husband off to work and is about to get her son ready for school when there’s a knock at the door. It’s Inam. It’s as if they haven’t seen each other for years but there’s tension between them, even danger. We don’t know why. The why is is told by way of sequential leaps between past and present, mercilessly revealing tender layers of the two women’s personalities and their different interpretations of the past. The screenplay is structured in a fragmented but ultimately cohesive suspenseful style. Through strong performances we are taken on an emotional journey through memory and time. Inam and Lara have a very strong bond. But they’re very different. They share a passion borne out of their shared experiences in Ramallah. They remain close friends amid remarkable and destructive events in their homeland, but away from Ramallah, in England, dramatic challenges push their journeys onto very different paths. Why is it that their friendship does not endure? Many immigrants bring with them their emotional scars that we never see or they’re never allowed to let go. Inam and Lara’s scars reveal different interpretations of the same reality to form a compelling assembly of a human puzzle. And how does it end? Inam forces Lara into reconciliation and in so doing overcomes a deep seated resentment about a devastating betrayal. Starting over comes with a price. Their past is not something they can escape so easily, no matter how deep they bury it into their subconscious. The present can seem like a very dark place when the past will not disappear. For many people memories, as unsubstantiated by reality as they may be, are the only grip they have on their own validity. Apparently, we are what we remember.



Connected mandy members:

Nerea Villares
Costume Designer
Costume designer assistant
Student
Rebecca Gore
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Costume Designer
Melissa Hartzel
Voice Over: English
Breakfast Radio Presenter
Celebrity Chef (Voiceover)
Andrew Foster
Voice Over: English
Celebrity Chef (Voice Over)
Melissa Hartzel
Actor, Talent
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