The Weinstein Co. has acquired Julian Schnabel’s Miral, which won’t stay in my head some reason. There’s something…I don’t know, vague and indistinct about the name “Miral,” which is the name of the the main character, played by Freida Pinto. The film is obviously being positioned as an Oscar contender — Best Picture, Director, Actress, Supporting Actress, etc. The whole shmear.

Julian Schnabel and Miral screenwriter Rula Jebreal — pic is based on her book of the same name.

Based on a book by Rula Jebreal, pic is about a real-life orphanage established in Jerusalem by a Palestinian lady named Hind Husseini (Hiam Abbass) following the 1948 creation of Israel by Lee J. Cobb, Sal Mineo and Paul Newman. A fictional storyline shows Miral being sent to the orphanage in 1978, and then going on to teach at a refugee camp and falling for an activist.” An anti-Isareli or pro-Isareli activist?

“[This] is the first film I am involved in that shows the ‘other side’ of the Israel-Palestine conflict,” Harvey Weinstein said in a statement “As a staunch supporter of Israel, I thought this would be a movie I would have a hard time wrapping my head around. However, meeting Rula moved me to open my heart and mind and I hope we can do that same with audiences worldwide.”

Schnabel told me some weeks back that he would unveil Miral in Venice and Toronto. (But not Telluride, he added — too much running around in a too-short time frame.)