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3000 Nights
2015 | France, Jordan, Lebanon, United Arab Emirates, Qatar | NR | 103 min.
Let’s say you’re a kind woman who lives in Palestine
and you give a ride to a boy in need of help.
Later, the boy is accused of being a terrorist, and
you’re accused of aiding and abetting. Do you
lie on the stand and incriminate him in order to
avoid punishment? This is the agonizing dilemma
facing Layla, a newlywed Palestinian schoolteacher
whose well-intentioned deed has tragic
consequences. Refusing to say that the boy
threatened her, she is sentenced to prison—and
once there, discovers she’s pregnant. Pressured
to have an abortion, she instead makes the very
risky choice of giving birth and raising her child
behind bars. Documentary filmmaker Mai Masri
uses her keen eye for realism to bring riveting
nuance to her first feature, a stirring celebration
of courage in the face of injustice, and a testament
to the power of a mother’s love in the darkest
of circumstances.
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