Synopsis:

Theft of Fire is a genre-defying feature documentary that tells the story ofan art heist that never happened, set on the backdrop of true historical events, people, and places. Our story follows a duo of a Palestinian archeologist and an ex-Prisoner, who hatch a plan to steal back priceless antiquities from Israel's former Defense Minister, Moshe Dayan. Over several decades, Dayan had pilfered antiquities from Palestinian lands and with them, Palestine's own history. Theft of Fire is a heist documentary unlike any other that will force viewers to confront the question of what separates fact from fiction.

Director’s profile:

Amer Shomali is a Palestinian multidisciplinary artist, using painting, films, digital media, installations and comics as tools to explore and interact with the sociopolitical scene in Palestine. Much of Shomali's work examines the creation and the use of the Palestinian revolution's iconography.

His art works are part of several collections: The British Museum, The Arab World Institute, Barjeel Art Foundation, The Samawi collection, The Museum of Manufactured Response to Absence (MoMRtA), Birzeit University Museum, Al-Qattan Foundation.

Shomali co-directed an award winning animated documentary, THE WANTED 18, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2014. The film was awarded the best documentary award in Abu Dhabi, Carthage, Traverse City, and Al-Jazeera Film Festivals. THE WANTED 18 was in the official submission lists for the foreign language and documentary categories of the Oscars 88th.

Producer’s profile:

For more than twenty-five years, Oscar, Emmy, BAFTA and Peabody-nominated producer Ina Fichman, Intuitive Pictures, has been producing award-winning documentary and fiction films, and interactive projects. Many of her creative documentaries have been released in theaters in Canada and abroad and have played at festivals including Sundance, Berlin, Hot Docs, RIDM, CPHDOX, Venice,SXSW, Tribeca, TIFF and others. Recent productions include FIRE OF LOVE,(nominated for Best Feature Documentary - 2023 Academy Awards), which had its world premiere at Sundance 2022, and was sold to National Geographic Documentary Films, STRAY, THE GIG IS UR, ONCE UPON ASEA, BLUE BOX, THE OSLO DIARIES, INSIDE LEHMAN BROTHERS, GIFT and LAILA AT THE BRIDGE. Award-winning productions include Amer Shomali's THE WANTED 18, MONSOON (Canada's Top 10) and VITA ACTIVA: THE SPIRIT OF HANNAH ARENDT.

In 2018, Ina was the recipient ofthe DonHaig Award from Hot Docs which recognizes the work of a Canadian independent producer.