A daring, compelling and controversial take on the life of prince Abdulaziz Al Saud (Ibn Saud), founder of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

UN statistics say that there are more than 5000 women and girls killed by their own family members for the sake of their honor for reasons like westernizing, falling in love and getting married by their own choice to partners outside their castes and religions, engaging in homosexual acts and a lot more. They happen all over the world. Though there are approximate statistics of the lives lost there are no statistics of people who have spend their lives with the burden of guilt of killing their loved ones for the sake of their family honor.

Director Yigal Bursztyn’s made-for-TV road movie takes viewers on a contemporary journey in which he traces the gospel and teachings of Jewish philosopher, Maimonides (aka the Rambam). Burszstyn goes from the Spanish city of Cordoba to Fes in Morocco, then onwards to Egypt and finally, Israel. In the course of this physical, geographical journey, Bursztyn also does a deep dive into Maimonides’s 12th century canonical work, The Guide for the Perplexed, which he uses as a tool to interpret present-day events and the conflicts between faith and rationale, and between religion, culture, and gender.

The film Announcements paints the portraits of seven women reflecting on the same theme. Their starting point is the announcement to Hagar, Sarah and Mary as in the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Koran. Their thoughts spread out and weave a new web, drawing strands from their associations and interpretations of these texts. And by talking about their own history, their personal myths, they work up to subjects such as the birth of image in the Christian world or that of poetry in ancient Greece. Announcements is a film about the movement of thought, the power of words, the secret of the voice, and the seduction of the image.