First Palestinian director to ever make a major Hollywood film

Lifestyle

Published: 2017-11-22 19:06

Last Updated: 2024-03-28 01:30


Hany Abu-Assad with his film's cast: Kate Winslet and Idris Elba.
Hany Abu-Assad with his film's cast: Kate Winslet and Idris Elba.

Director Hany Abu Assad has made history as the first Palestinian director to ever make a major Hollywood film, with his new thriller, “The Mountain Between Us.”

When Hany Abu-Assad, who was born in Nazareth, Palestine, was handed the script for “The Mountain Between Us” in 2014, he knew he wanted to shoot it at an authentic location, in the snowy Canadian Rockies.

“The idea was great between a survival tale and it turning out to be a love story, and what's the difference between love and survival? Is there any difference between the two?" Abu-Assad told Business Insider.

"We fall in love, I think, because we want to survive. We want to bring kids to the world. So the theme is very interesting. There aren't many movies being done with the combination of survival and love.”

Talking about directing the film, Abu Assad said that shooting days only lasted for six hours as everyone had to leave the filming location by the time the sun went down.

Hany Abu Assad is known for Paradise Now (2005), Omar (2013) and The Mountain Between Us (2017), both of which received Oscar nominations for Best Foreign Language Film and were about Palestinians in challenging circumstances.

The Mountain between us stars are two well-known British actors, Kate Winslet and Idris Elba. It was produced in 2017 as a drama, adventure and action film.

The story centers around Ben (Idris Elba) and Alex (Kate Winslet), who survived a plane crash , and are stranded up an isolated mountain. The two strangers must forge a connection to survive the remote mountain covered by snow after the tragic plane crash.

But when they do not receive any help, they decide to embark on a journey across hundreds of miles of mountains, pushing one another to endure and discover strength they never knew.

The film is inspired by a novel written by American author Charles Martin, and is a romance-disaster novel.

The movie’s rate on IMDB is 6.3/10. and will be screened in Amman cinemas by the end of November.