Awards
Sinking Creek Film Festival 1984
Best Documentary Short
In I Miss the Sun filmmaker Mary Halawani profiles her grandmother Rosette Hakim, who left Egypt for the United States in 1962. The Halawanis, a prominent Egyptian-Jewish family, fled their homeland in 1959 when Egyptian anti-Zionist sentiments increased and when hundreds of Jews, suspected of pro-Communist activities were interned in detention camps. Rosette, the family matriarch, chose to remain in Egypt until every member of the large family was free to leave. Using the Passover seder as a backdrop, Rosette (who now lives in Brooklyn) discusses life in Egypt and the contrasts between the values and textures of life there and in America.
“I Miss the Sun is a unique and important contribution to the profile of contemporary Jewish life, exploring an area where there is so little known about the community.”
- Julius Schatz, former President, National Council on Art in Jewish Life“The Passover Seder is important to the family... the family reenacts the Exodus in a visual way, with ritual movements and demonstrative Arab hand gestures.”
- Hadassah Magazine, 1984
The National Center For Jewish Film
Brandeis University, Lown 102, MS053, Waltham MA 02454
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