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2013 London Palestine Film Festival

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Welcome to the 2013 London Palestine Film Festival

This year’s programme comprises 24 events at the Barbican Cinema and University of London, involving 38 titles, 24 guest speakers, and the UK’s first international conference on Palestine and the Moving Image.

Opening with a gala screening of David Koff’s trailblazing 1981 documentary, Occupied Palestine, the 2013 programme boasts historic depth with rarities including a thematic session marking the 25th anniversary of the first intifada, and an outing for Elia Suleiman’s debut, Homage by Assassination (part of 1991 portmanteau The Gulf War… What Next?).

There’s plenty of fresh material on offer too, with some 20 premieres, including a sharp new doc on life in the Syrian Golan heights, a revealing account of the vast quarrying industries in the West Bank, and the story of a spectacular kite flying world record bid in Gaza. Exceptional shorts and animations run throughout the programme, along with some bold new experimental works from Palestine and beyond.

For more information on the festival visit Palestine Film Foundation

Palestine gallery to open in London

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OneWorld Events

Londoners will soon be able to get off the tube at King’s Cross and walk into a Palestinian refugee camp.

They will be able to meet some of the 12,000 descendants of the 750,000 Palestinians forced to flee their homeland in the wake of the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.

The people of Shatila camp are squeezed into one square kilometre. The labyrinthine alleyways are plastered with posters and inscribed with graffiti and street art.

You enter the home of Mariam, a 90-year-old woman who is propped up in bed. She tells her family’s story, part of the story of the Nakba (The Catastrophe – the Palestinian displacement).

You can call in on Hassan, sitting in his shrine contemplating the history that has brought him here, fingering a string of blue prayer beads as he explains his eclectic collection of objects – Muslim and Christian, secular and religious, prayer beads, crucifixes, icons, clay pots and seashells, all illuminated by fairy lights.

Or you can meet three generations of the Al-Awwal family: Rasheed, 42, his mother, sitting regally in her armchair, and his son, Abdul.

All this is possible through an interactive touch-screen tour of Shatila soon to be unveiled at Europe’s first Palestinian gallery, which opens in October.
“Palestinian artists are not widely recognised,” says the gallery’s communications and events officer, Sami Metwasi. “They are isolated. This gallery will give them a chance to be presented to the world.”

He says the Palestinian image “has been polluted during the years of struggle and conflict”, and the exhibitions and activities will help highlight its people’s rich, diverse culture.

“It is always after others see the high quality of our art and culture that their respect for Palestine grows. We Palestinians are not just victims of injustice but a living culture worthy of admiration and respect.

“What is wonderful about it and about our people is that even under the most terrible circumstances of occupation, exile and war we have not only kept our cultural heritage alive but created new cultural output of such high quality to earn its place among world class modern art and culture.”

Another aim, he says, is to communicate with British culture, to build bridges and to give an opportunity to British people to explore Palestinian culture.

“We are not a traditional gallery with traditional divides and barriers between installations and users,” notes Metwasi. “Rather, we aim to use this modern space to bring people together and to bridge gaps between Palestinians and locals.”

It will also be a centre for Britain’s Palestinian community, estimated at 75,000.
The gallery’s original sponsor was the Prince of Sharjah, Sheikh Sultan al-Qassimi, who funded it through the London-based Palestine Return Centre. It is now an independent entity.

The gallery has already started work, with activities that include creative workshops for teenagers and, on 26-27 June, performances by a group of youngsters from a camp in Bethlehem who tell their stories through photographs, images and dance, “proving that talent can bloom in the most difficult conditions of life in exile and under occupation”.

* The Palestine Gallery, 21-27 Chalton Street, NW1. Tel: 0207 121 6190

Original article appeared here

I Am Yusuf and This Is My Brother: A Palestinian story about Palestinians

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In the war of 1948, thousands of Palestinians were uprooted from their homes never to return, and playwright Amir Nizar Zuabi is determined to tell their stories.

 

Amir Nizar Zuabi, a Palestinian director and playwright

Amir Nizar Zuabi in Jerusalem. Photograph: Gali Tibbon

 

It was six decades ago, but the fallout from the war continues. A few months ago, one fast-rising, rightwing Israeli party tried to introduce a bill that would ban Palestinians from commemorating the Nakba of 1948, their catastrophe (but which Israelis hail as the creation of their state, the apogee of their independence struggle). In the end, the law will probably be watered down, but the principle seems to have wide support. As far as most Israelis are concerned, they won in 1948, the Palestinians lost, and history has moved on. Except, of course, it hasn’t.

Next week, a compelling new play opens at London’s Young Vic, promising to thrust the discomforting story of that war back into public scrutiny. At the age of 33, Amir Nizar Zuabi, the play’s writer and director, is from a generation of Palestinians raised on stories of the Nakba, haunted by tales of how hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were uprooted from their homes, never to return. “We have it as a covert partner in everything,” says Zuabi. “Two of us can sit having coffee and the third person will be Mr Nakba.”

Zuabi was brought up in Nazareth, in the Galilee, where there is a large population of Palestinians living within Israel, and where all around there is evidence of the 1948 war, including ruined villages. One of the razed villages was Baissamoon, a tiny Palestinian community. It is here that Zuabi set his play, I Am Yusuf and This Is My Brother, which tells of two brothers, an ill-fated love, and the dislocation and tragedy brought about by the war.

The play, says Zuabi, began as a personal investigation to scrape away layers of myth. “Why did people make the decision to leave? Or did they make the decision to leave? What would you have done?” Zuabi, living in Israel, found the story had been “hushed up”: “It’s the big taboo, because it’s the primal sin. It is the mother of all problems here. They don’t like talking about it.”

Zuabi’s writing is, however, far from polemical. The Jews who fought to create their state are almost absent; never named, they appear only in the background. “We saw them first in January, then all the time,” says one brother. “They invaded our dreams, our conversation.” Zuabi simply wanted to tell a Palestinian story about Palestinians. “Our narrative is the less known one – history is written by the victors,” he says, but adds: “There is no spite. I find the blame game futile. It’s not like I do theatre to crush Israeli propaganda. I don’t hear Israeli propaganda. I don’t care about it.”

The villagers are divided: should they run or fight? Some see the battle in stark terms. “The war was over before it began,” says one character. “We lost. They won. It was that simple.” But with Britain’s Mandate ending, the same character tells a British officer: “We are not a rubbish heap for your guilt, my friend. We’re in your Middle East and what you sow here you’ll reap in 50 years or 100 years in your lovely London.”

Dropped into the middle of this is the original, sombre recording of the results of the UN vote on the 1947 Partition Plan. Rejected by Palestinians, it was passed by the UN and, but for the war, would have carved Palestine into two states around an internationally protected Jerusalem. “Soviet Union: Yes. United Kingdom: Abstained. United States: Yes . . .”

The play explores the what ifs, says Zuabi. “My grandmother, this Palestinian matriarch, used to say, ‘If you plant what ifs, you’ll sow I wish.’ When I walk around Haifa, in some of the neighbourhoods that are empty, I really have to ask myself, ‘What if that hadn’t happened? What are they doing, these people that once lived here?'”

Zuabi studied acting in Jerusalem, then worked with the al-Kasaba theatre in Ramallah as the second intifada, the Palestinian uprising, took hold. He and his actors produced short sketches that drew unexpectedly large audiences, hungry for relief. The sketches turned into Alive from Palestine, which toured abroad, with runs at the Royal Court and the Young Vic. Zuabi then spent a year working at the Young Vic, studied in Moscow, and returned home to work with the Palestinian National theatre.

I Am Yusuf is the first play from ShiberHur, a new touring theatre company based in Haifa, whose name means Within a Few Inches of Freedom. It has already toured Palestinian villages and refugee camps – communities with little access to the theatre. “We have everything going against us as a theatre movement,” says Zuabi. “Lack of funds, infrastructure, the fact that theatre is not really part of our cultural tradition – we come from a poetic tradition.”

When Zuabi was at drama school, he was the sole Palestinian among Israeli students (one of whom, now a successful actor, later became his wife). Only recently has a drama school opened in Ramallah. Until then, Palestinians went to Israel, if they could obtain the permit, or abroad, if they could afford it. “It’s a new art form for us. We have an audience that’s completely uncatered for and is very thirsty. Once they know theatre exists, they keep coming back.”

He has been surprised by the reaction to the play across the generations. In Jerusalem, an elderly man came up to him after one performance and said: “Thank you very much for telling my story.” In Haifa, a woman in her 20s told him: “I understand my parents better now.” Still, he doubts how much difference one play can make towards unravelling this bitter conflict. “I have to believe it does affect people,” he says. “On the other level, I’m not daft. I know I can’t change the reality. I can’t make a show and tomorrow everyone will walk hand-in-hand.”

I am Yusuf and This Is My Brother Young Vic,  London SE1 Starts 19 Jan Until 6 Feb Box office:  020-7922 2922 Venue website

Original article was posted here.

Art on the edge: Palestinian artist Larissa Sansour

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Denise Marray

23 November 2012

Khaleej Times

Palestinian artist Larissa Sansour draws inspiration from the political occupation and dehumanising treatment witnessed during her childhood days, and transforms them into profoundly symbolic 
works of art.

A Palestinian astronaut plants the national flag on the moon and then floats away into space. These sequences, bas-ed on iconic images from the US moon landing and Stanley Kubri-ck’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, are at once startling and moving beca-use they express both profound hope and sadness.

The images, from the short film A Space Exodus, are the work of the Palestinian artist Larissa Sansour, whose name made headlines last year when the clothing and accessories company Lacoste forced the withdrawal of her shortlisted photography artwork from a competition being held at L’Élysée Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland. Her work was apparently considered ‘too pro-Palestinian’.

In response to the censorship, the museum broke off relations with Lacoste, the corporate sponsor, and cancelled the competition which carried a first prize of £21,000. The story of the censorship made headlines across the world, and Sansour and her Danish husband found themselves at the centre of a media storm, which proved both uplifting and exhausting. The censored work, Nation Estate, which has since been developed into a futuristic short film, places the Palestinian people in a skyscraper, supported by the international community, with each floor representing a city — Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Ramallah. The citizens in this luxury development can move about freely, via elevators (no checkpoints), but it is a sterile environment affording ‘freedom’ within the confines of an 
artificial construct. The skyscraper has views over the Dome of the Rock of Jerusalem — so the inhabitants overlook the real Jerusalem, forcing them to face a painful reality of exclusion and separation.

Speaking from her London apartment, Sansour said she and her husband are taking a much-needed rest after completing the film version of Nation Estate, which took nine months of intense work. Ironically, Sansour had wanted to win the Lacoste Nation Estate photography prize. In the event, the publicity that ensued from the ban raised her profile, and she was able to pour the res-ulting profits from sales of her work into financing the high-end production film made in Copenhagen.

Sansour was born in Bethlehem; her parents met in Moscow where her Palestinian father was studying mathematics. Her mother is Russian and worked in radio in Moscow. Upon returning to Palestine, her father was invited by the Vatican to found Bethlehem University. The family home, recalled Sans-our, was like an unofficial embassy, full of leading thinkers and political discussions. As a child, she drew instinctively and her father encouraged her precocious talent by finding her art classes to attend.

She remembers her childhood as ‘sunny’ but punctured by disturbing moments of images of violence on the street. “I think what it does psychologically, and you can’t shake that off, is that you feel that not all humans are equal. As a kid that sends a strong message: ‘You’re Palestinian so you will be treated like dirt.’ It becomes cemented — this dehumanisation — from an early age.”

When she was 15, her family life with parents, brother and sister, was harshly disrupted with the ons-et of the First Intifida, an uprising against the occupation of the Palestinian Territories, which lasted from December 1987 to 1993. Her parents, in an effort to protect her, sent her to boarding school in England, where she studied for her O and A levels. Her memories of this time, she said, are full of gloomy grey skies and a feeling of alienation. Those years sowed the seeds of an aversion to London, which she has only recently overcome. She now loves the international buzz of the city, with its 
vibrant cultural scene.

After returning to Palestine for high school, she then set off for the United States, studying art first in Baltimore and then in New York, where she completed her Masters. She continued her Fine Art studies in Copenhagen, Denmark, where she met her husband, a writer, who works with her on the film scripts. The couple, who moved to London three years ago, have a five-month-old daughter, whose joyful arrival has meant a shift in priorities.

A Space Exodus was showing at the Edge of Arabia’s ‘Come Together’ exhibition in the heart of London’s East End last month. Artists from across the Middle East showed contemporary work using a wide range of mediums and expressing powerful ideas.

Edge of Arabia is unique in engaging directly through educational programmes with the local East End community. This approach is appreciated in an area of London where, after years of social deprivation, a burgeoning arts scene has given a new lease of life to the once run-down streets, but left many residents feeling excluded. “We’re proud to be the education partner with Edge of Arabia,” said Narull Islam, co-founder of the Mile End Community Project.

“This is probably the first exhibition that has really engaged with the local community. They have got the young people involved; that’s really refreshing. It gives our young people confidence to meet renowned artists.”

Article appeared here khaleejtimes.com

‘Unto the Breach’: Palestinian dance adaptation of Shakespeare’s play

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UK-based Palestinian dabke theatre group Al Zaytouna will present its new production entitled Unto the Breach in London in November 2012.
Interview by Mamoon Alabbasi – LONDON
Article Published: 2012-10-22 Middle East Online

Henry V set in modern-day Palestine

The UK-based Palestinian dabke theatre group Al Zaytouna will present its new production entitled Unto the Breach, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Henry V set in modern-day Palestine. The show, directed by Ahmed Masoud and co-directed by HadjerNacer, will be performed in London in November 2012. Al Zaytouna board member Souraya Ali gave the following interview ahead of the full production’s debut.

Q– Could you give a brief introduction to the show?

Al Zaytouna Dance Theatre’s new show Unto the Breach is a dance adaptation of Shakespeare’s history play Henry V, set in modern-day Palestine. Paralleling Shakespeare’s account of the young English monarch, King Henry V leading his people in battle against the mighty French army, Unto the Breach tells the story of the Chairman, a Palestinian leader who, moved by his people’s suffering, leads them in a revolution against a more powerful force to free them from oppression.

As in Shakespeare’s original play, a Chorus leads the audience through the show, but here she urges them to imagine “the vast olive groves of Palestine” and “the very gates of Jerusalem” rather than the 15th century battlefields of France, and the scenes she narrates are brought to life not through Shakespearian dialogue, but through traditional Palestinian dabke and contemporary dance against a backdrop of digital media.

Q– Some have interpreted Shakespeare’s Henry V as a play that celebrates patriotism while others have viewed it as exposing the Machiavellian characteristics of a king – shedding light on the horrors of war. How do you understand the original play? And how does your show relate to that?

We don’t see Shakespeare’s play as a straightforwardly patriotic account of King Henry V’s French battles. Whilst the play does depict an extraordinary victory against all odds, it also shows that the motives behind this victory were not all virtuous, and that the means of achieving it were not all noble. For example the two clergymen who put the case for war to the King at the beginning of the play are driven by financial motives, as are various unsavoury characters who join the king’s army because of prospects of plunder. King Henry himself also shows a darker side to his character with a controversial decision to execute defenceless French prisoners during the battle of Agincourt.

Unto the Breach captures something of this ambivalence towards war. On the one hand, it celebrates Palestinians’ efforts to change their circumstances and shape their future through revolution, but on the other it recognises that these efforts have not yet succeeded. Palestinians still live under occupation and are far from achieving the freedom and sovereignty that they have been fighting for. The show also highlights the internal power struggles that have undermined Palestinians’ campaign for freedom, and depicts some of the darker outcomes of such struggles, such as in a scene where the Chairman executes two of his own people to quash a rebellion.

In the original play, the Chorus repeatedly draws the audience’s attention to the inability of the theatre and actors to accurately convey all aspects of the historical tale. Instead, the Chorus resorts to hyperbole and appeals to the audience’s imagination, indicating just how much our understanding of past events is constructed – and embellished – by those who recount them. Shakespeare thus highlights the power of rhetoric and political myth in re-telling military history. Unto the Breach reflects this idea with a scene where the world’s press attend the signing of a peace agreement, and then the journalists file their reports, constructing people’s understanding of this historical event.

Q– You noted that the launch of the show would coincide with the anniversary of Yasser Arafat’s death. In light of recent reports suggesting that the late Palestinian leader may have been assassinated via the radioactive element polonium-210, is there a reference to that incident in your show, since the theme of assassination is present in the original play where Shakespeare’s Henry V survives an attempt on his life (albeit by friends not foes)?

This incident is not addressed in our show.

Q– Although King Henry V, at one point in the original play, comes to the humble realisation that he is but a man; he is nevertheless the person responsible for rallying his men to victory. How does that reconcile with your show, given that: a- Yasser Arafat, who in the director’s words is “the great figurehead of the Palestinian struggle”, has died before managing to lead his people to liberty; and b- The Arab Spring, which you cite as among the inspirations for the show, had been sparked without any outstanding movement leaders?

Whilst the launch of Unto the Breach coincides with the anniversary of Yasser Arafat’s death, and there are parallels between our depiction of the Chairman and that of the late Palestinian leader, the show is not a historical account of his life. It does, however reflect on the value of a figurehead such as Arafat, in uniting people behind a common cause, enabling them to stand up for their rights and to stake their claim for sovereignty on a world stage. The show recognises this value but also acknowledges that the Palestinians have not yet achieved their objectives, and so the Chairman in our production dies without securing the liberty that he craved for his people. The achievement of victory is thus far less clear-cut in Unto the Breach than it is in Shakespeare’s Henry V.

In the show, the Chairman’s death leaves the Palestinians without a leader, and so the onus is on them to once again rise up and claim their rights. The idea that this is possible – that people can bring about change if they unite and call for it with a common voice – flowed strongly from the Arab Spring, and inspired us to create the show. Although we recognise that any such struggle is fraught with difficulties, it is this idea of hope that continues to drive us forwards.

Q– In the original play, future unity between the British and French kingdoms is suggested following the marriage between Henry and the daughter of the French king, Catherine. Monarchies aside, do you see the One-State solution as some sort of a modern day parallel to that?

Whilst Shakespeare’s play ends with King Henry V’s marriage and the expected union of England and France, the historical reality is that Henry V never succeeded to the French throne. He died two years after his marriage and two months before the King of France, and his French conquests were lost over the ensuing years under the reign of his son King Henry VI. Unto the Breach reflects this more sombre reality. In the production the Chairman also dies, and much of what he has fought for is dissipated as conflict and the grip of occupation continue, and his successors are debilitated by internal power struggles. The show has a deliberately ambiguous ending, leaving open the question of how the Palestinian question is to be resolved, and what the nature of the solution might be.

Q-Following a very impressive performance of your show Between the Fleeting Words in 2010, do you expect to outshine such success with Unto the Breach this year? Also, has there been any change in the way you do things or in the group members?

Since Between the Fleeting Words debuted in London in 2010, Al Zaytouna has continued to develop as a troupe. Thanks to the phenomenal support that we received for the last show, we toured it in the UK, Slovenia, Switzerland, and Germany. This experience helped us to hone many performance and production skills, which we believe will make Unto the Breach even better and stronger.

Al Zaytouna has also continued to grow, with new dancers joining us, and many of our members pursuing new artistic endeavours. These have included our artistic director Ahmed Masoud writing a radio play for BBC Radio 4, entitled Escape from Gaza, in collaboration with Justin Butcher, and winning the Muslim Writers Award 2011 in the Unpublished Novel category for his book Gaza Days. Several of our dancers have developed their own dance theatre work, such as Lorraine Smith’s Pictures of Life and new work Disco Babies, whilst others have taken on new performance roles, such as UmutUysal who drummed in the opening ceremony of the London Olympics. All of these experiences have enriched the group bringing new expertise and fresh ideas.

We were also fortunate to secure a grant from the BBC Performing Arts Fund to support the development of Unto the Breach, which given us the support and profile to take this show to the next level. We have been able to invest more in the show’s development and to reach out to new partners and collaborators. We are, for example, very happy to have professional actress Clare Quinn performing with us in this show, and we have been able to secure a really wonderful performance space at the artsdepot. All of these factors make us confident that Unto the Breach will be even more successful than Between the Fleeting Words.

Q– Again with regards to Between the Fleeting Words, the 2010 show featured a beautiful blend of music genres, projecting a mix that crosses cultural and generational divides. It also included the notable presence of the talented Palestinian artist Nizar Al-Issa. What music variety should we anticipate with Unto the Breach?

Unto the Breach builds on Al Zaytouna’s tradition of working with leading musicians, and features a collaboration with David Randall. David is a guitarist, composer and producer who has contributed to multi-million selling albums by Grammy-winning artist Dido, toured extensively with UK dance act Faithless, and released his own critically acclaimed albums as Slovo. He also wrote and produced the One World single Freedom for Palestine, and has published articles on the role of music in political campaigns and on Palestinian Hip Hop. He is a highly talented musician who is passionately committed to the Palestinian cause and his contribution to this production has been invaluable. David has composed and recorded a number of tracks especially for Unto the Breach, which are woven together with traditional Palestinian songs to create a powerful and moving sound track.

For information on booking, visit: http://www.alzaytouna.org/productions/unto-the-breach

This article appeared in Middle East Online http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=55048