Take the sexiest man of the year, team him up with a statuesque Palestinian-American spoken word muse, add a fiery filmmaker who sets out to make her first feature movie and you end up with "Salt of This Sea", this year's official Palestinian Academy Award entry.

The film by Palestinian director Annemarie Jacir had its global debut at the Cannes Film Festival last May and was the opening film at the ongoing Ramallah International Film Festival.

"Salt of This Sea" tells the tale of Soraya, a fiery, Brooklyn-born Palestinian-American who sets out for the Middle East to try and close her grandfather's small savings account, something that he'd left behind when he fled his Jaffa home during the 1948 war sparked by Israel's official declaration of independence.

When the bank refuses to give Soraya the money, she enlists a Palestinian waiter and his friend to help her steal it back. Of course, the bank robbery sets off a surreal road trip through Israeli checkpoints, Palestinian ghost towns inside Israel and, eventually, to Soraya's family house in Jaffa, which is now home to a lefty Israeli woman who sympathizes with Soraya's plight.

Soraya is played by Suheir Hammad, who, much like the character, is a passionate Palestinian-American raised in Brooklyn.

Hammad is best known for her spoken word poetry, including "First Writing Since," an emotionally-charged spoken word piece on 9/11.

"If there are any people on earth who understand how New York is
feeling right now," Hammad says, "they are in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip."

You can see a condensed version of the piece here:

Starring alongside Hammad is Saleh Bakri, the young actor who won the Israeli equivalent of the Oscar for his compelling performance as the petulant, Chet Baker enthusiast in "The Band's Visit," about a wayward Egyptian police band that accidentally ends up in a remote Israeli town. Bakri was also voted the world's sexiest man by an Israeli women's magazine, and he seems to inspire a certain kind of unrestrained desire in some female fans...

Bakri doles out dating tips in this hilarious scene:

Like many a Palestinian film, "Salt of This Sea" was beset by many a challenge.

Israel refused to grant permits for West Bank Palestinians working on the movie to film scenes in Israel.

Then, Jacir herself was barred from coming into Israel.. (The government accused Jacir of trying to smuggle Palestinians into Israel...) That forced Jacir and the actors to complete some of the scenes in Marseilles.

Jacir, who was barred from coming to the West Bank for the film's debut, described the Israeli ban as akin to "being trapped outside a cage."

Many Palestinian films dwell on the emotionally-draining aspects of the conflict, something that can be hard for audiences to take in large doses. (One of the reasons I liked "Driving to Zigzigland" at last year's film festival was that it was a wry comedy about a Palestinian guy who sets off to become a Hollywood Star and ends up being a taxi driver who combats persistent ignorance and prejudice with droll humor.)

"Salt of This Sea" has so-far garnered mixed reviews.

It is at its best when it injects surreal humor into the drama. But it also offers one of the best screen versions of a Ben-Gurion airport shakedown.

Hundreds of people -- Palestinians, Americans, Palestinian-Americans, Israeli-Americans who ignored the ban on Israelis entering Ramallah -- packed into the movie theater to see the film. One filmmaker described it as a major step forward for Palestinian movies.

Chances are it won't secure an Oscar nomination. But "Salt of This Sea" does chart some new ground for Palestinian filmmaking.