The film “3000 Nights” has been selected as Jordan’s candidate for the foreign-language category at the 2017 Oscars, The Hollywood Reporter writes. The drama marks documentarian Mai Masri’s narrative debut.
The story centers on Layal (Maisa Abd Elhadi), a Palestinian schoolteacher who is arrested based on false accusations and finds herself serving time in a high-security Israeli women’s prison. Making matters even more complicated, Layal discovers she is pregnant, and the prison’s director pressures her to have an abortion.
“I met a woman who had given birth to a baby boy in an Israeli prison in the ‘80s,” Masri told Women and Hollywood of “3000 Nights’” genesis. “Her story touched me deeply and made me curious to know more. Having just become a mother myself, I wanted to understand what it meant to give birth in chains and to raise a child behind bars.” She explained, “I started researching and interviewing women who had given birth in detention. I was fascinated by their stories and the choices they made. I also found out a lot of things I didn’t know about the relationship between Israeli and Palestinian inmates.”
Masri was “mostly drawn to the human stories, the anecdotes, the imagination, and humor.” She said, “What struck me was not only the conflict, but the alliances that were forged by these women and how they developed and matured in prison.”
“3000 Nights” premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival, and has won a number of awards on the festival circuit, including the Taormina Film Festival, the International Film Festival and Forum for Human Rights, the Women’s International Film and Television Showcase, and Filmfest DC.
Jordan previously entered films into the 2009 and 2016 Oscar races. “3000 Nights” is the third film the country has submitted for consideration.
Masri’s documentary credits include “33 Days,” “Beirut Diaries: Truth, Lies, and Videos,” and “Frontiers of Dreams and Fears.”
Israel recently selected Elite Zexer’s “Sand Storm,” a drama about an 18-year-old girl whose forbidden love affair is discovered by her mother, for Oscar contention. Greece submitted Athina Rachel Tsangari’s dark comedy “Chevalier,” Germany chose Maren Ade’s Cannes hit “Toni Erdmann,” and New Zealand will be represented by Pietra Brettkelly’s “A Flickering Truth,” which centers on the preservation of film archives in Afghanistan.
