An Ode to Ghassan Kanafani تحية إلى غسان كنفاني

The first screening of the festival invites us to reflect on the work of the martyr Ghassan Kanafani’s novella, Return to Haifa, which still stands as a pinnacle of Palestinian resistance literature. When it was adapted for screen as a feature film, those involved strove not simply to convey its proudly Palestinian perspective, but also to implement revolutionary methods throughout the production process.

The film will be introduced by Dr Kay Dickinson, where she will detail the ways in which Palestine’s political movements – in this case the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) – mobilized filmmaking as a radical means of liberation.

A workshop on Kanafani will take place after the screening (free tickets available on website).

Return to Haifa 

dir. Kassem Hawal
(1982)
Duration: 74m
Original Language: Arabic, German (English subtitles)
Genre: Drama, Historical Fiction

Return to Haifa عائد إلى حيفا is based on Kanafani’s novel the plot of which takes place in 1967, when Palestinian refugees living in the newly occupied territories had an opportunity to visit the places from which they had been expelled in 1948. Saeed and Safiyya, a Palestinian couple expelled from Haifa in 1948, visit the home that had been their own. Miriam, a Holocaust survivor and now a Jewish Israeli citizen who lives in their house, lets them in.

About the Guests

Kay Dickinson is a Reader in Cultural Studies at the University of Glasgow. She is the author of Arab Cinema Travels: Transnational Syria, Palestine, Dubai and Beyond (2016) and Arab Film and Video Manifestos: Forty-Five Years of the Moving Image Amid Revolution (2018).

Content Notes:

Themes of displacement due to Zionist colonialism. Depictions of Zionism, violence, guns, blood, harm towards children, Nazism.