Line Halvorsen

USA vs Al-Arian

Director:	Line Halvorsen
Country of production:	Norway
Year of production:	2007
Duration:	99 min
Screenplay:	Line Halvorsen
D.O.P:	Tone Andersen
Editor:	Trond Winterkjor, Line Halvorsen
Composer:	Stain Berge Svendsen
Sound:	Erling Rein
Producer:	Jan Dalchow
Production company:	Dalchows Verden / www.dalchowsverden.no

Film plot

USA vs AL-ARIAN is a close portrait of an Arab-American family facing terrorism charges levelled by the U.S. Government. The film shows a personal story of a family living in a society where fear of terrorism has resulted in increasing stigmatization and discrimination against Muslims. For years, Nahla Al-Arian and her children have been fighting to prove the innocence of husband and father Sami, a Palestinian refugee, university professor and civil rights activist, who has lived in the USA for more than thirty years. In 2003, Sami Al-Arian was accused of giving material support to a terrorist organization and held in solitary confinement for over three years. His six-month trial ended without a single guilty verdict. The failure to convict Dr. Al-Arian was seen as a stinging rebuke for the federal government. While the Bush administration considered this a landmark case in its campaign against international terrorism, Sami Al-Arian claims he has been targeted in an attempt to silence his political views. Because the jury hung on some of the counts, however, Dr. Al-Arian remained in jail as the prosecution threatened to retry him.

In May 2006 he agreed to a plea bargain with the US Government in order to put an end to the ordeal and to be reunited with his family. A federal judge sentenced him to 57 months in prison and subsequent deportation, and his family is now searching for a country that will accept him, a stateless Palestinian, upon his release from prison. The case of Sami Al-Arian is one of the first major tests of the USA PATRIOT ACT, a controversial law passed hastily after September 11, 2001.

Awards

2007: Tromsø International Film Festival: Audience Award
2007: New Orleans Human Rights Film Festival, USA: Best Film
2007: Norwegian Documentary Film Festival Volda: Grand Prix (Flugeprisen)

Line Halvorsen was educated at the University of  Trondheim and Documentary Department at the Volda University  College.

Filmography

2006: USA vs Al-Arian
2003: A Stone's Throw Away
2002: Orphan Voices
2000: Horsebacking Australia
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