At a time when the US is threatening the Syrian government, the 14th Damascus Film Festival has filled its screens with Hollywood films. Out of over 400 films, almost 100 are American or US coproductions.

However, while films from Brazil to Japan are participating in the event, with judges from all over the world, no Israeli film is participating, said Ghaghda Mardin, spokeswoman for the festival.

"Of course [Israeli participation] would not be possible," Mardin told The Jerusalem Post in a telephone interview from the festival press office at the Shams Hotel in Damascus. "I am not the address for such questions."

Syrian President Bashar Assad is the festival's patron and this year's festival honors Syrian film director Mustafa Akkad, who, along with his daughter Rima, was killed in the terror bombings in Amman two weeks ago. Akkad was famous for his thriller series Halloween and his controversial epic The Message, in which Anthony Quinn played an uncle of the Prophet Muhammad...