New York, NY - April 29, 2009 - Kino International is proud to announce the national release of Rashid Masharawi's Laila's Birthday (2008), a film set to premiere at The Museum of Modern Art, in New York City, on May 27.

In an unprecedented move to bring Laila's Birthday to the widest possible audience, Kino, in association with The Auteurs, an online cinematheque and social networking site for cinema, will also make Masharawi's latest feature available via streaming (within the United States) immediately following its premiere at The Museum of Modern Art.

Laila's Birthday will remain available at the site (http://www.theauteurs.com/laila) from May 28 through June 14.

This film had its North American debut at last year's Toronto International Film Festival and has since played in over 20 festivals around the world, including London, Tokyo and Cairo. It is also scheduled to open in select US markets this summer and fall, prior to its release on DVD and VOD by the end of 2009.

Set in the filmmaker's hometown of Ramallah, Laila's Birthday follows a Palestinian judge-turned-taxi driver as he navigates the corruption, everyday hassles, constantly changing political winds, and pervasive Israeli checkpoints in and around the city. As he tries to arrange a birthday cake and gift for his young daughter's birthday, the regular chaos of Palestinian life takes him to surprising new destinations.

Director Rashid Masharawi is a major figure in the Palestinian film scene and has developed a body of work deeply invested in the figure of the refugee - from the first Intifada to the era of the Peace Process and onwards. His 1995 feature film Haifa is an engaging story about community life in a refugee camp. And the 2002 documentary Live from Palestine intelligently follows the editorial and production process of journalists working for the famed Voice of Palestine radio station.

Born in Gaza in 1962 to a family of refugees from Jaffa, Masharawi grew up in the Shati refugee camp; he now lives and works in Ramallah. There, Masharawi founded the Cinema Production and Distribution Center, a film initiative that promotes local productions and organizes a mobile film-screening program aimed at bringing high-quality cinema to Palestinian refugee camps. Masharawi also helps organize the annual Kids Film Festival in Ramallah as well as several local workshops on film production and directing.