The feature-length movie, starring Sa?d Taghmaoui and Patrick Bruel, is a cinematic adaptation of the 1972 bestseller of the same title by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins. Ian Holm plays David Ben-Gurion.
The film opens in New York City on November 29, 1947, when representatives of 56 member states of the recently-founded United Nations were voting to partition the British Mandate over Palestine.
At the same time, two American friends both aged 27 are living in the carefree post-WWII atmosphere. Jewish New Yorker Bobby Goldman, a veteran of the U.S. Army, and Sa?d Chah?n - an Arab from Jerusalem, share the same ideas and moral values. Distraught with events, they decide to leave for Palestine.
There they become caught up in the events that led to the division of Jerusalem, Israel's Declaration of Independence on May 14, 1948, the invasion of armies from the surrounding Arab countries, and the mass flight of Arabs out of Israel who were either driven from their homes or opted to vacate in the hopes of returning to occupy the vanquished Jewish towns.
Paris-born Chouraqui said that his cinematic exploration of that conflict was guided by the same concern to reflect objective historical truth that drove Lapierre and Collins when they wrote “O Jerusalem.”
A special edition of the book, which has sold more than 30 million copies, was published to celebrate the film's release. It includes 50 pages of notes by the authors explaining how they conducted their research.
The film opens in New York City on November 29, 1947, when representatives of 56 member states of the recently-founded United Nations were voting to partition the British Mandate over Palestine.
The Cast of the new O Jerusalem Film
At the same time, two American friends both aged 27 are living in the carefree post-WWII atmosphere. Jewish New Yorker Bobby Goldman, a veteran of the U.S. Army, and Sa?d Chah?n - an Arab from Jerusalem, share the same ideas and moral values. Distraught with events, they decide to leave for Palestine.
There they become caught up in the events that led to the division of Jerusalem, Israel's Declaration of Independence on May 14, 1948, the invasion of armies from the surrounding Arab countries, and the mass flight of Arabs out of Israel who were either driven from their homes or opted to vacate in the hopes of returning to occupy the vanquished Jewish towns.
Paris-born Chouraqui said that his cinematic exploration of that conflict was guided by the same concern to reflect objective historical truth that drove Lapierre and Collins when they wrote “O Jerusalem.”
A special edition of the book, which has sold more than 30 million copies, was published to celebrate the film's release. It includes 50 pages of notes by the authors explaining how they conducted their research.