Schnabel's “Miral,” Starring Freida Pinto Drops Pics and Trailer, Due in Dec.

Even if you don't think much of his painting, it's hard to deny that Julian Schnabel has a great eye as a director. So it's great to see more than 30 production stills, in addition to the trailer, from his upcoming film, "Miral."

The film, based on the book by Rula Jebreal, stars Freida Pinto as a young woman left by her father at a Palestinian orphanage where she is raised within its walls to believe that education is the path to piece. But her beliefs are challenged when she falls for a young Palestinian activists. The film also stars Vanessa Redgrave, Willem Dafoe and Alexander Siddig.

It will be interesting to see what the reaction to this film, which appears to be "pro-Palestinian," will be. Both Schnabel and Harvey Weinstein, who is distributing it, are Jewish, while Redgrave has been vilified for decades for her Palestinian sympathies. "Zionism is a brutal, racist ideology. And it is a brutal racist regime," Redgrave famously told "60 Minutes" In the '70s.

“This is the first film I am involved in that shows the ‘other side’ of the Israel/Palestine conflict," Weinstein in June told Variety. "As a staunch supporter of Israel, I thought this would be a movie I would have a hard time wrapping my head around. However, meeting Rula moved me to open my heart and mind, and I hope we can do that with audiences worldwide.”

The trailer is a bit flat, what's shown of the film lacks the beauty and nuance of Schnabel's previous film, "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly." But that film was good enough to earn the director at least a three-movie pass.

"Miral" hits the states Dec. 3.

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