"It's the only film on which I worked with an Israeli crew," he said. "I wanted to make that move as a Palestinian, to show we can work together, open borders and all be one country."
The Olive Harvest, filmed in the Ramallah and Jenin regions of the West Bank, is a complex Palestinian love story and one of 13 movies that made their Gulf premiere during the six-day Dubai International Film Festival, which closed on Saturday.
Elias, who said he was ambushed in Dubai by Arab reporters who criticized him for working with an Israeli crew, argues that his film is strictly a love story and portrays the experience of women.
"There are complex universal issues in the film, but people don't concentrate on that. Because I had an Israeli crew, it created a hoopla."
When screened on Friday before a Full House, however, the public reacted positively during a subsequent question-and-answer session.
"There was no aggressiveness, even though they were aware I'd worked with Israelis... and when I said I would do it again, that I would work with Israelis and build bridges, there was wide applause," he said.
The film's two leading male characters, brothers Mazen and Taher, who fight over the same woman, Raeda, represent Israelis and Palestinians fighting over the same land.
"We salute the makers of The Olive Harvest, who have shown that two peoples can work together and produce excellent cinema," the festival organizers said.
"That is why I agreed to come here," said Elias, pointing to the festival guide write-up. "When I read the statement, that means they salute the Palestinian cast and Israeli crew. That means this is a place I must come to honor."
Like most Arab countries, the United Arab Emirates, of which Dubai is part, does not have relations with Israel and is a strong supporter of the Palestinians.
Although no films from Israel were showcased at the festival, two of the 77 films screened contained Hebrew dialogue.
The 47-year-old filmmaker said that he was not invited to film festivals in Tunisia and Spain since making The Olive Harvest last year, when it won two awards in Cairo.
"Organizers don't know what to do with me, they think it's a risk [inviting me]. But I would love to take that risk. I want to teach them democracy," Elias said.
The Olive Harvest was shown in Jerusalem and Ramallah, "but it wasn't an issue because we're in the friction there, we know the situation. The issue for [Palestinians] was the story itself, two men fighting for the same woman," he said.
Elias says he wants to establish a "nonviolent movement in Palestine". As a start, he is dubbing Richard Attenborough's Gandhi into Arabic and plans to release it in February.
© 2004 Agence France-Presse
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