The French trailer for Miral has just gone online.  Directed by Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly), the film revolves around a real orphanage in Jerusalem set up by a Palestinian woman (Hiam Abbass).  Freida Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire) plays Miral, a young woman who grew up in the orphanage and who becomes an activist when she is assigned to teach at a refugee camp and sees that Israelis and Palestinians actually don't get along too well.

I had to look up that synopsis because even though the dialogue is English (with French subtitles), this trailer doesn't do a good job of conveying what the film is about.  However, Diving Bell blew my mind and so I'm on board for this movie.  In addition to Pinto and Abbass, the cast also includes Willem Dafoe and Vanessa Redgrave. Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  Miral is slated to open on December 3rd.

Trailer via The Playlist.

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Directed by: Julian Schnabel

Starring: Hiam Abbass, Frieda Pinto, Omar Metwally

Synopsis: From Julian Schnabel, Academy Award© nominated director of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Before Night Falls and Basquiat, comes Miral, the story of four women whose lives intertwine in the starkly human search for justice, hope and reconciliation amid a world overshadowed by conflict, rage and war. The story begins in war-torn Jerusalem in 1948 when Hind Husseini (HIAM ABBASS, The Visitor, Amreeka) opens an orphanage for refugee children that quickly becomes home to 2000 orphans. One of the children is seventeen year old Miral (FRIEDA PINTO, Slumdog Millionaire) who arrived at the orphanage 10 years earlier, following her mother’s tragic death. On the cusp of the Intifada resistance, Miral is assigned to teach at a refugee camp where she falls for a fervent political activist, Hani (OMAR METWALLY, Munich, Rendition) and finds herself in a personal battle that mirrors the greater dilemma around her: to fight like those before her or follow Mama Hind’s defiant belief that education will pave a road to peace.

Release date: December 3, 2010 (limited)

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