Susan Abulhawa’s Mornings in Jenin headed for the silver screen

Literary and film agency Pontas has announced film rights for Susan Abulhawa’s international bestseller Mornings in Jenin have been acquired by Filmworks Dubai.

Originally published in English by Bloomsbury the novel has already been published in translation in more than 20 countries and is a real phenomenon in Norway and Italy, among many other territories.

Tim Smythe and Rami Yasin are attached as producers and will be leading the project’s development with plans to go into production in the latter part of 2013. Filmworks Dubai are known for producing City of Life and Djinn…as well as being the production partners on major Hollywood features like Syriana, The Kingdom and most recently Mission Impossible 4 .

A brief synopsis for readers unfamiliar with Mornings in Jenin

Palestine 1941. In the small village of Ein Had a father leads a procession of his family and workers through the olive groves. As they move through the trees the green fruits drop onto the orchard floor; the ancient cycle of the seasons providing another bountiful harvest.

Palestine 1948. The Abulheja family are forcibly removed from their ancestral home in Ein Hod and sent to live in a refugee camp in Jenin. Through Amal, the bright granddaughter of the patriarch, we witness the stories of her brothers: one, as stolen boy who becomes an Israeli soldier; the other who is sacrificing everything for the Palestinian cause will become his enemy.

Amal’s own dramatic story threads it’s way through six decades of Palistine-Israeli tension, eventually taking her into exile in Pennsylvania in America. Amal’s is a story of love and loss, of childhood, marriage, parenthood, and finally the need to share her history with her daughter, to preserve the greatest love she has. Richly told and full of humanity, Mornings in Jenin forces us to take a fresh look of one of the defining political conflicts of our time. It is an extraordinary debut.

I’ve been wishing to hear this since I read the book.

There’s an untamed gypsy spirit coming thru Abulhawa’s writing, she conjures lyrical phrases that lull the reader into a magical sense of time and space. The book keeps growing after you put it down …… this heartwrenching historical Palestinian masterpiece with enduring charismatic characters spanning several generations.

And I want a movie if you don’t mind, if it isn’t too much to ask! Pronto!

Yeah! Go Susie! Super congrats.