Lou Ye, a Chinese who is banned from making movies in his native country China, is now planning a film about a Palestinian who is abandoned by his wife after facing a 10 years sentence in an Israeli jail.
Lou Ye’s film Summer Palace was critically acclaimed at Cannes last year, but earned him and producer Nai An, a five-year ban from film making by Chinese State Administration of Radio, Film and Television for not taking official approval for the screening. Summer Palace was a sexually charged movie revolving around pro-democracy protests in 1989 in Beijing, which were dispersed by military force. This is the second ban for Lou Ye, who was earlier banned for two years in 2000 for illegally screening the film Suzhou River Rotterdam.
Lou is at present is managing funds to make The Last Hour, based on a play written by Palestinian writer Mazen Saadeh. Saadeh, who also works as a documentary-maker. Lou and Saadeh first met while attending a workshop at the University of Iowa last year.
Violating the Chinese ban, Lou will start shooting on location the next year.
