Ghost Hunting

Palestine
Producer: Palmyre Badinier
Production Company: Dar Films Productions

Project Logline:

From the experience of being jailed inside the Shin Beth “al-Moskobiya” investigation center at the age of 18, the Filmmaker, RAED (46), has fragmented memories that he can’t distinguish as real or imaginary. In order to confront the ghosts that have continued to haunt him, Raed seeks to rebuild that mysterious center again. In response to a job announcement, seeking ex-prisoners of al-Moskobiya who work in the fields of construction, many Palestinian ex-prisoners arrive at a large empty yard near Ramallah in order to re-build that jail… Besides building “al-Maskobiya”, Raed seeks also to recreate the incident of “Mohammad’s story” that happened in same period of time of his arrest and consider in Palestine as a story of Heroism. MOHAMMAD himself is in the yard, he was asked to join this “project” in order to help RAED write some scenes that depict what happened with him. Mohammad will also help the Palestinian cinema actor Ramzi who will reincarnate and play his role. RAMZI “the actor” was also an ex-prisoner of “al-Maskobiya”, but unlike Mohammad, Ramzi broke down as a result of his investigation experience. Still traumatized until today, he suffers from claustrophobia and paranoia. As for the roles of the “Shin Bet” officers who investigated Mohammad, those roles will be offered to the construction team of ex-prisoners. Along with the task of re-building their old jail, each ex-prisoner can choose one Shin Bet officer that he remembers and try to reincarnate, act, that role.

Raed Andoni was born in 1967 in West Bank. He founded in 1997 DAR FILMS, an independent production company based in Ramallah city. Through Dar Films he produced and secured a wide international broadcasting for a number of award-winning Palestinians documentaries. As THE INNER TOUR by Ra’anan Alexandrovich, (2000), LIVE FROM PALESTINE by Rashid Masharawi, 2002, and INVASION (Egteyah) by Nizar Hassan, 2003, 60’. His first documentary as a director, IMPROVISATION “60 min” (2005), produced in association with Arte, was a great succes at festivals. Andoni’s first feature, FIX ME (2010) was premiered in Sundance and Cannes, before its release in European theaters, and won several prizes around the world such as the SCAM award for “the best documentary of the year”.