A free screening of MIRAL (2010), the latest film by renowned director Julian Schnabel, based on the novel and screenplay by Rula Jebreal. Drawing on real life stories, the novel and film paint a stunning portrait of personal conflict, humanitarian courage, and political struggle involving Palestinian women living in Israel between 1948 and 1993.

A Q&A with author/screenwriter Rula Jebreal, moderated by Prof Claudio Fogu (UCSB), will follow the screening and will focus on the multiple adaptations of MIRAL between print and film. 100 free copies of the novel will be handed out at the screening to UCSB students, and a book signing by the author will follow at the end of the evening.

Rula Jebreal was born in Haifa, Israel, in 1973. In 1991 she moved to Italy, where she began working as a journalist specializing in the Arab- Israeli conflict and the growth of Islamic fundamentalism. In 2000, Jebreal became the first foreign anchorwoman in Italy to broadcast the evening news on national television, and since 2004 she has hosted numerous high-profile Italian television programs. She now lives in New York. MIRAL was first published in Italian in 2004, and is her first novel to be translated into English.

Sponsored by the UCSB French and Italian Department, UCSB Italian Program, Italian Cultural Heritage Foundation of Santa Barbara, UCSB Department of Film and Media, Carsey-Wolf Center, UCSB Religious Studies Department, the UCSB Center for Middle Eastern Studies, and the UCSB Department of History.