LYD world premieres at Amman International Film Festival to widespread acclaim

release date September 07 2023

Rami Younis and Sarah Ema Friedland’s documentary LYD held its world premiere at the fourth edition of the Amman International Film Festival - Awal Film on Saturday, August 19th, garnering instant widespread critical acclaim after its first screening at Taj Cinema 6.

Hailed for its creative quality and approach, LYD had a full house screening, with public dignitaries, A-list celebrities, and critics flocking to watch it before honoring it with a standing ovation after its conclusion.

The screening was also promptly followed by an engaging Q&A session in which the directors took center stage to delve deeper into the intricacies of the film and share their insights on the regional tensions that inspired its creation.

MAD Solutions — the film’s worldwide distributor and sales agent — recently released the film’s teaser trailer on a number of social media platforms, which you can watch here:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CvuLVbLN1_I/?igshid=NjIwNzIyMDk2Mg==

LYD is a sci-fi documentary that follows the rise and fall of Lyd — a 5,000-year-old metropolis that was once a bustling Palestinian town until it was conquered when the State of Israel was established in 1948.

As the film unfolds, a chorus of characters creates a tapestry of the Palestinian experience of this city and the trauma left by the massacre and expulsion.

Rami Younis is a Palestinian filmmaker, writer, and journalist from Lyd. Younis currently hosts a daily news show called ‘On the Other Hand,’ where he exposes fake news and counters misinformation about Israeli Palestinian residents.

Meanwhile, Sarah Ema Friedland is a New York-based documentary filmmaker and media artist. Friedland’s works have screened widely in the US and abroad and have been broadcast nationally on PBS.