Oscar nominee detained
Thursday 21 February 2013
Printable
EmailUS immigration officials briefly detained the Palestinian director of the Oscar-nominated documentary 5 Broken Cameras on his way to Sunday's Academy Awards.
Emad Burnat said today that when he arrived with his wife and eight-year-old son late on Tuesday, agents told them they didn't have proof he was a nominee and would send them back if they couldn't verify it.
Burnat had been in the US two weeks earlier doing interviews about the film.
5 Broken Cameras, the first Palestinian documentary ever nominated for an Oscar, has already won awards at the Sundance Film Festival and the Cinema Eye Honours.
Mr Burnat said that he was used to the kind of questioning his family underwent.
"There are more than 500 Israeli checkpoints, roadblocks and other barriers to movement across our land, and not a single one of us has been spared the experience," he said.
"Ours was a very minor example of what my people face every day."
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