"Imad Aqel," which had its premiere on Saturday, is the first feature film produced by the Islamist Hamas movement, and the title is the name of a Palestinian militant whom Israel held accountable for the deaths of 13 soldiers and settlers.In accordance with strict Muslim tradition, men and women sat in separate sections of the theater to view what Hamas officials termed the "Cinema of Resistance," referring to what it describes as a fight against Israeli occupation.
"Imad Aqel" was filmed on a set built inside the former Jewish settlement of Ganei Tal in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. It depicts Hamas's founding in the 1980s, attacks Aqel mounted on the Israeli military in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the signing of the Oslo peace accord between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1993.
The film cost $120,000 and was written by Mahmoud al-Zahar, a senior leader of Hamas, which the West regards as a terrorist group. Aqel was killed at the age of 22 by Israeli soldiers who surrounded his hideout in Gaza in 1993. Majed Jendeya, the movie's director, said he hoped to screen the film at the Cannes festival.
