No houshold name, director Michael Winterbottom nevertheless reserves respect for experimenting with cinema. He has made an arthouse porn movie (9 Songs), a postmodern rock biopic (24 Hour Party People), documentaries (The Road to Guantanamo), and worked with impressive actresses like Kate Winslett and Angelina Jolie. And with his latest, The Killer Inside Me, receiving positive reviews from Sundance, he is already working on his next film. Promised Land tells the story of the months leading up to the establishment of Israel in 1948 and the partition of Palestine.

And, news is just in that Oscarn nominated actor Colin Firth has been added to the cast. He joins Jim Sturgess (21) and Matthew Macfadyen (Pride and Prejudice). The film is an interesting project, but there are valid fears that the story may add fuel to the fire of the various anti-Zionist movements and create further damage. But the world will have to brace itself for a series of films concerning the Israel-Palestine issue, whether Oscar nominated Ajami or Julian Schnabel’s Miral.