Tale of the Three Jewels

Michel Khleifi, director of the 1987 Palestinian classic Wedding in Galilee, originally began Tale of the Three Jewels as a 50-minute BBC production before expanding it into a full-length feature. This sad yet inspiring 1995 drama follows Yusef, a 12-year-old Palestinian boy living in Gaza, who has escaped into his own fantasy world as a means of blocking out the hardships of life under Israeli occupation (including the fact that his father is in an Israeli jail and his older brother is a fugitive). One day, Yusef has a chance encounter with a gorgeous gypsy girl named Aida, with whom he becomes smitten. Yusef impulsively declares that he wants to marry Aida, but the latter says that he can only win her love by locating three jewels missing from a South American necklace belonging to the girl's grandmother. Yusef agrees to search for the missing jewels, embarking on an adventure of surprising dimensions. In Tale of the Three Jewels, which is notable for being the first feature film ever shot in the Gaza Strip, Khleifi deftly blends the crushing reality of the region's strife-torn environment with Yusef's mystical imagination to create a moving tale of the innocence of youth in a harsh social and political landscape. Highly recommended. (P. Hall)