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Hiam Abbass' Palestinian family documentary 'Bye Bye Tiberias' applauded at Marrakech Film Festival
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FILE - A view of the venue where the Marrakech International Film Festival is being held, ahead of the opening ceremony in Marrakech, Morocco, Friday, Nov. 24, 2023. A documentary about Palestinian actress Hiam Abbass and how four generations of women in her family were shaped by exile premiered for an emotional audience in Marrakech, where film festival organizers have operated under the shadow of war on the other side of the Middle East. - photo by AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy, File
MARRAKECH, Morocco (AP) — Thirty years ago, Palestinian actor Hiam Abbass left her home to pursue her dreams of being in the movies, joining generations of women in her family who were shaped by exile and “learned to leave everything and start anew.” That's one of the stories told in her director daughter Lina Soualem's documentary “Bye Bye Tiberias,” which received a standing ovation and shouts of “Long Live Palestine” on Saturday night at the Marrakech International Film Festival for the film's first screening in the Arab world. The documentary, the Palestinian entry for next year's Academy Award for Best International Feature, follows Abbass and Soualem as the mother-daughter pair laugh, cry and tell the story of four generations of women in their family. “Bye Bye Tiberias” first premiered at the Venice International Film Festival, more than a month before the start of the latest Israel-Hamas war, sparked by the militant group's deadly incursion into Israel on Oct. 7.