Palestinian film 'Omar' shortlisted for 2013 Academy Awards

Foreign Language Film nominations for the 2013 Academy Awards have determined nine features that will advance to the next round of voting, when the final five will be chosen. The list of nine films includes the Palestinian feature "Omar," directed by Hany Abu-Assad. The film had received a jury prize in the "Un Certain Regard" category at the Cannes festival and the 10th Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) awards in the best Arabic feature category . It tells of a young Palestinian who dodges bullets to climb the separation wall built by Israel to see his girlfriend Nadia on the other side of their divided West Bank town. The tale becomes complicated when Omar and his childhood friends, Amjad and Tarek, the brother of Nadia, launch a guerrilla attack on Israeli forces. Omar is arrested and then faces a struggle between loyalty to his friends and love under blackmail by intelligence agent Rami, who arranged his release to use him as an informant.