Palestinian Resistance Cinema Retrospective سينما المقاومة الفلسطينية

These four resilient short films from The Palestine Film Unit have survived despite Zionist effort to destroy them. Join us as we introduce the films with a presentation on Palestine’s militant cinema tradition, followed by an open discussion and meal post-screening.

Children Nevertheless اطفال ولكن

dir. Khadijah Habashneh Abu Ali
1980
Original Language: Arabic (English subtitles)
Genre: Short, Documentary

Produced by the Palestinian Cinema Institute and the General Union of Palestinian Women, the film revolves around the life of the orphans of Tall Azaatar Martyrs, in “Bait El- Somoud”. Through the lives of these children, the film shows the sufferings that Palestinian children endure, in diaspora camps and under the Israeli occupation. The film focuses on the contradiction between the “International Declaration of Child Rights” and the reality of the living conditions of Palestinian children.

Content notes: Description of death, torture and rape threats. Depiction of distress, grief, violence, children’s corpses.

They Do Not Exist ليس لهم وجود

dir. Mustafa Abu Ali
1974
Original Language: Arabic (English subtitles)
Genre: Short, Documentary

Salvaged from the ruins of Beirut after 1982, Abu Ali's early film has only recently been made available. Shooting under extraordinary conditions, the director, who worked with Godard on his Ici et Ailleurs (Here and Elsewhere), and founded the PLO's film division, covers conditions in Lebanon's refugee camps, the effects of Israeli bombardments, and the lives of guerrillas in training camps. They Do Not Exist is a stylistically unique work which demonstrates the intersection between the political and the aesthetic. Now recognised as a cornerstone in the development of Palestinian cinema, the film only received its Palestine premiere in 2003, when a group of Palestinian artists "smuggled" the director to a makeshift cinema in his hometown of Jerusalem (into which Israel bars his entry).

Content notes: Depiction of grief, aerial bombardment, destroyed buildings, obscured corpses. Description of the death of children.

Palestine In The Eye فلسطين في العين

dir. Mustafa Abu Ali
1976
Original Language: Arabic (English subtitles)
Genre: Short, Documentary

An homage to the cinematographer Hani Jawhariya of the Palestine Film Unit of the PLO, which contributed significantly to the emergence and body of the films of the Palestinian resistance. Jawhariya was killed in filming in Lebanon. The film is one of the few remaining documents of the work of the Palestine Film Unit. Palestine in the Eye chronicles the profound impact of Hani Jawharia’s death for the PLO Film Unit. The film reflects on his life through interviews with family, colleagues, and his own cinematography, including the moment of his death while filming for the Unit in 1976.

Although the film has later been attributed to Mustafa Abu Ali, the Unit’s method of work was to describe everyone as a collective of “workers,” and we see this in the film titles, which collectively list the names of all those who participated as a non-hierarchical collective.

Through this reflection on Jawharieh, we are offered an understanding of the workings of the Palestine Film Unit and its international connections.

Content notes: Depiction of grief, a Zionist air raid, and injuries.

Scenes Of The Occupation From Gaza مشاهد من الاحتلال في غزة

dir. Mustafa Abu Ali
1973
Original Language: Arabic (English subtitles)
Genre: Short, Documentary

A rare film by the legendary filmmaker Mustafa Abu Ali, one of the founders of the Palestine Film Unit, the first filmic arm of the Palestinian revolution. Shot by a French news team, the footage was edited by Mustafa in Lebanon to produce one of the earliest films on the occupied territory in Gaza. Scenes of the Occupation from Gaza employs experimental editing techniques to produce a cinematically and politically subversive film. The film won the prize as best film at the Damascus Film Festival in 1973 and was screened at multiple festivals. It was the only film produced by the Palestine Cinema Group, which in 1974 became the Palestine Cinema Institute.

Content notes: Brief description of death and violence. Depiction of distress, grief and the sound of explosions.

About the guests

Solidarity Screenings is a film screening initiative based in Glasgow that began as a cultural response to the call of Al-Aqsa Flood. Guided by revolutionary optimism and anti-imperialist, feminist working-class principles, the project aims to (re)build genuine solidarity through educational and agitational screenings.

SUMAG is a plant-based pop up inspired by Iraqi and SWANA flavours. They will provide a special meal for the audience of this programme.