This is my picture when I was dead by Palestinian screenwriter/director Mahmoud al Massad (Recycle), who lives in the Netherlands, is the first (feature-length) documentary from KeyDocs, the new production house that Hanneke Niens and Hans de Wolf of KeyFilm recently founded together with Janneke Doolaard, formerly Head of Documentaries at Egmond Film & Televisie (including Diary of a Times Square Thief, Banking the Unbanked, Alles Komt Ergens Van), and later Eyeworks Film & TV Drama.

Thanks to their years of experience, they guarantee a broad network and extensive expertise in producing a wide range of films and documentaries for both the national and international markets. They strive to create documentaries on significant subjects and themes combined with an original format. Additionally, KeyDocs is eager to collaborate with Dutch broadcasters, who jointly produce a broad array of shorter documentaries for television.

This is my picture when I was dead tells the almost unimaginable life story of Bashir Meraish, who in 1983, at the age of four, was the victim of an attack by the Israeli Secret Service along with his father, a prominent PLO officer. Father and son are declared dead, but hours later in the hospital, young Bashir turns out to still be alive.
Now, 26 years later, Bashir is a global citizen in Jordan and one of his country's most important political cartoonists.

In a mix of documentary footage, fiction, animation, and archival material, Bashir takes a journey back. Images of and memories of his father, and an open look at his own life in contemporary Amman, make This is my Picture when I was dead an inventive and inescapable quest for the roots of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Director Mahmoud al Massad, who also wrote the screenplay, was previously responsible for the widely acclaimed documentary Recycle (2007), winner of the Cinema in Motion Award at the 2007 San Sebastián International Film Festival and the Cinematography Award at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.

This is my Picture when I was dead is a co-production of KeyDocs and iSee Film, the VPRO and the American ITVS, made possible in part by the Netherlands Film Fund, CoBO Fund, the Royal Film Commission Jordan, Al Jazeera and the Sundance and Dubai Film Festivals.

Distributor A-Film will release the film in theaters later this year.

KeyDocs was founded in late 2009 by Hanneke Niens and Hans de Wolf of KeyFilm, and Janneke Doolaard, formerly Head of Documentaries at Egmond Film & Televisie, later Eyeworks Film & TV Drama.

KeyFilm was founded in 2008 by Hanneke Niens and Hans de Wolf.
Hanneke Niens was formerly co-founder, producer, and managing director of IDTV Film. Producer Hans de Wolf was one of the founders of Egmond Film en Televisie, formerly Bergen. Together, they combine more than 25 years of experience in producing (international) feature films (including the Oscar-winner Antonia and the Oscar-nominated film The Twins), television films, TV drama productions, documentaries, dance films, and short films.



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