Polygraph

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DIR. SAMIRA SARAYA

2021 / ISRAEL-PALESTINE / 20 MINS

Yasmine, an openly lesbian Arab nurse, finds out that her lover Or, an intelligence officer in the Israeli army, has been reporting on their relationship. Yasmine’s sister arrives for a visit from the West Bank, not knowing that she is going to meet the occupying enemy at her own sister’s house.

CREDITS

Written By SAMIRA SARAYA

Produced By ELI LASZLO BERGER & SARI EZOUZ BERGER

Edited By SARI EZOUZ BERGER

Director of Cinematography TALIA GALON

Sound By RONEN NAGEL

Music By SYSTEM ALI

Production Design By OREN ADAF

Featuring SAMIRA SARAYA, HADAS YARON & FIDAA ZIDANE

OFFICIAL SELECTION

MIX MILANO FESTIVAL

Milan, Italy

September 2021

KASHISH MUMBAI INTERNATIONAL QUEER FILM FESTIVAL

Mumbai, India

May 2021

WICKED QUEER

Boston, MA

April 2021

ROZE FILMDAGEN

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

March 2021

QUEER SCREEN FILM FEST

Sydney, Australia

February 2021

TEL AVIV INTERNATIONAL LGBT FILM FESTIVAL

Tel Aviv, Israel

November 2020

ABOUT SAMIRA SARAYA

Samira Saraya is a Palestinian actor, writer, and director currently based in Tel Aviv. In her early twenties, Samira began performing in drag as an LGBTQ+ activist, and was making her living as a hospital nurse. Her first career breakthrough occurred in 2011 when she landed a lead role in the successful Israeli TV show Minimum Wage and Samira has since continued acting in critically acclaimed films and TV shows— most notably, Fauda, the hit Israeli TV drama. For her 2017 performance in Death of a Poetess, Samira won the Best Actress Award at the Jerusalem Film Festival and in 2018, won the Best Script Award for her short Polygraph at TLVFest, Tel Aviv's International LGBT Film Festival. Samira has a graduate degree in directing from Tel Aviv University and made her directing debut with Polygraph in 2020, which features the first openly lesbian relationship in Palestinian cinema.