Programme

dir. Milena Desse, Palestine / Belgium 2020, 23 min.

In a land perpetually threatened by colonial appropriation, the transmission of history and narratives plays a vital role – as in Milena Desse’s essay-film, which portrays a place on a hill above the West Bank village of Ein Qiniya. The landscape pulls us into an undying world before walls, checkpoints and erasure, journeying back in time through objects uncovered in the renovation of two late Ottoman houses. The film is part performance, part historical document – a story told through disappearances and revelations. 

dir. Sophia Al-Maria, France / UK 2019, 38 min., English & French with English subtitles

This film is set against the science-fiction backdrop of a solar battle, as evoked by Etel Adnan in her poem The Arab Apocalypse. Just as Adnan uses drawings and symbols to communicate what cannot be expressed in words, so Sophia Al-Maria explores the revision of history through a new language of drawings, movement and music that gives voice to the speechless. Her protagonists reflect on the narratives and languages they have inherited, and the violence they have encountered, as children of colonial legacies. The resultant film serves as an escape route from dominant narratives of an oppressive past. 

This session will be followed by a very special discussion with artist and filmmaker, Sophia AlMaria and actor, Yumna Marwan. They will be hosted by artist and curator, Amal Khalaf.