Saverio Costanzo (Director)

Inspired by real events, documentary filmmaker Saverio Costanzo's feature debut is a minimalist psychological drama about a Palestinian family of seven suddenly confronted with a volatile situation in their home that in many ways reflects the larger ongoing conflict between Palestine and Israel.

Type: Feature Film

Director: Saverio Costanzo

Year: 2004

Time: 90 minutes

Produced by: Mario Gianani

Written by: Saverio Costanzo, Sayed Qashua Camilla Costanzo and Alessio Cremonini

Edited by: Francesca Calvelli

Language: English, Arabic and Hebrew with English subtitles

Reviews

Winner of a Golden Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival, PRIVATE is convincingly shot in a documentary style with a hand-held camera and a quick pace. Director Costanzo has created a unique occasion for both Israeli and Palestinian actors to work together, and being an outsider himself, he has worked to maintain a neutral standpoint while dramatising the conflict.

Official Selection of the 2005 Vancouver International Film Festival and San Francisco International Film Festival.

“…acted with fierce conviction” --The Village Voice
“…captures [war’s] harrowing complexities with unerring accuracy"
--Toronto Int'l Film Festival
“…an effectively didactic thriller” --Philadelphia City Paper