Facebook Event \\ Festival Poster

On November 27-29, 2014, Zochrot International film festival will be held in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, dedicated to films about the Palestinian Nakba and Return of Refugees. Together with documentary and narrative features from around the world, we will screen new short films produced especially for this event by Palestinian and Israeli filmmakers.

The Zochrot Film Festival takes place around November 29, marking the 67th anniversary of the 1947 UN Resolution on the Partition of Palestine. The Partition Plan fixated the idea of partition and separation between Jews and Palestinians in historical Palestine and was a key milestone in the ongoing conflict and the uprooting of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. The festival seeks to creatively challenge the partition concept and suggest new pathways for just and equitable life for all of this divided country's present inhabitants and refugees.

These films are about the filmmakers' grappling with the past, seeking a human and political solution for the ongoing injustice and suffering, and setting a course of responsibility and redress as a chance for a better future for everyone in our troubled land and region

All films will be screened at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque, except for the film “Ismail”, that will be screened at al-Saraya Theater in Jaffa

Tel Aviv Cinematheque:  Shprintsak St 2. Tickets at the box offices on screening day or at the Cinematheque website. free for subscribers
al-Saraya theater: Jaffa's old city (near the Hammam) Tickets at the box offices on screening day

For further details please contact Raneen Jeries at 48mm@zochrot.org

03-6953155

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Thursday - 27.11.2014 
(Tel Aviv Cinematheque)

21:00 - 23:00

Opening Event
Screening four films produced especially for this festival. Following the screening,
a panel discussion will be held with the filmmakers.
Each film is 10 minutes long, in Hebrew and Arabic with subtitles in both languages. 
 

The Iris Blooms in May
Dir.: Michael Kaminer
Palestine/Israel, 2014
Mariam Abu-Latifa was born 86 years ago in the village of Sar’a. Michael was born in 1964 in Kibbutz Tzor’a, years after the houses moved from Sar’a to the nearby valley.
As a child, he used to walk up to the Village Chief’s House up on the mountain. Nobody told him and his friends that this house belonged to other people. Michael ventures on a journey
to discover the hidden secret. At age 20, in 1948, Mariam and her family were expelled from the village. Before the expulsion, she
had lost a baby who was buried in Sar’a, where the iris blooms in May. 

 

The National Park
Dir.: Amir Yatziv
Palestine/Israel, 2014
Computer animation based on dozens of structures in uprooted Palestinian villages, laser scanned and sequenced to form a single virtual village. A female character describes the view - a description borrowed from brochures of so-called National Parks built over the ruins of these villages.

Welcome Back
Dir.: Guy Königstein
Israel, 2014
In the midst of the recent round of violence in Southern Israel, the filmmaker invites a group of friends to the rural community where he was born, in the Upper Galilee, to organize a reception for Palestinian returnees. How will the group face this challenge?

All Rights Reserved
Dir : Laila Bettermann & Anael Resnick
Palestine/Israel, 2014
Taboo - Social prohibition against names, activities, people and conversation subjects considered undesirable. Violating a taboo is seen as a despicable act.
Tabu – Property title deed.
When the house and its tenants want to tell a story but are silenced by the taboo, objects have to speak in their stead. A house turns into a tile, a landlord into a lock and a meeting into a cup of tea.
 

Friday - 28.11.2014
(Tel Aviv Cinematheque)

10:00 - 11:30
CINEMA PALESTINE
Dir.: Tim Schwab
Canada, 2014
(79 min. Arabic & Eng. Eng & Arabic sub)
Cinema Palestine is a feature-length documentary on several generations of Palestinian filmmakers and media artists. Told through intimate interviews with Palestinian artists living in the Middle East, North America and Europe, and featuring excerpts from their works, the film explores personal experiences, artistic development, and sociopolitical concerns, as well as the relationship to the landscape and what it means to be a Palestinian artist in the context of the struggle for nationhood. Trailer
 

12:00 - 14:00 
Panel: Nakba and Return in Palestinian and Israeli Cinema
Speakers:
- Raji Bathish (The Open University)
- Rachel Leah Jones (Documentary   Filmmaker)
- Dr. Itay Harap (Department of Film and Television, Tel Aviv University).

(120 min. The Panel will be in Heb)

14:30 - 16:00
A World Not Ours
Dir.: Mahdi Fleifel
UK, Lebanon, Denmark, Palestine, UAE, 2012
(93 min. Arabic & Eng. Eng sub)

A World Not Ours is an intimate, humorous portrait of life in the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp in southern Lebanon. Based on a wealth of personal recordings, family archives, and historical footage, the film is an illuminating study of belonging, friendship, and family.
Filmed over more than 20 years by three generations of the same family, A World Not Ours is more than a family portrait; it documents what is being forgotten, and marks what must not be erased from collective memory. Trailer
 

 16:30 - 17:45
The Turtle’s Rage
Dir.: Pary El-Qalqili
Germany, 2012
(70 min. German & Arabic. Eng sub)
The Turtle’s Rage tells the story of an enigmatic man, whose life is shaped by flight and expulsion, exile, and the failed attempt to return to Palestine. His is a life torn by the Israel-Palestine conflict. It is the story of the director’s father and of a daughter’s search for answers. It is the story of their journey together through Egypt, Palestine and Jordan. A story so nuanced as to thwart the simplified notions of victim and perpetrator, good and evil, black and white. Trailer

Saturday  29.11.2014

Time: 15:00 - 16:00 (Tel Aviv Cinematheque)
Where Should the Birds Fly
Dir.: Fida Qishta
Gaza, 2012
(58 min. Arabic & Eng. Eng sub)

This is the first film about Gaza made by Palestinians living under the Israeli siege. It is the story of two young women, survivors of Israel’s attack in 2008-9. Mona Samouni, now 12 years old, and the filmmaker, Fida Qishta, now 27, represent the spirit and future of Palestinians. The film is a visual documentation of the Goldstone Report. More than that, it reveals the strength and hope, the humanity and humor that flourish in Gaza. Few films have documented so powerfully and personally the impact of modern warfare and sanctions on a civilian population. Trailer

Flying Paper
Dir.: Nitin Sawhney and Roger Hill
Gaza, 2013-2014
(71 min. Arabic & Eng. Arabic & Eng sub)

Flying Paper is the story of Palestinian children in Gaza engaged in kite making and flying. The film follows Musa, a charismatic teenaged kite-maker, and Abeer, an aspiring young journalist. Along with thousands of other children, they try to break the Guinness World Record for the most kites ever flown. The film showcases the creative resilience – and resistance – of these children, despite the difficult daily realities. Trailer

Time: 18:00 - 19:00
(Tel Aviv Cinematheque)
1948
Dir.: Mohammad Bakri
Palestine, 1998
(54 min. Arabic. Heb sub)

The film 1948 is a record of memories of a group of elderly Arabs. The director, Mohammad Bakri, employs poems Mahmoud Darwish. In their own words, the Palestinians interviewed describe the moments when they became refugees. They described the brutality in which they were deported, or the fear of massacre that made them and their families flee for their lives. They speak without blame or even protest. 

19:00 - 21:00
(Al-Saraya Theater)

Ismail
Dir.: Nora Alsharif
Jordan, 2013
(28 min. Arabic. Eng sub)

Inspired by a day in the life of Palestinian painter Ismail Shammout (1930-2006), Ismail tells the compelling story of a young Palestinian struggling to support his parents after their expulsion to a refugee camp in 1948.
Despite the wretched living conditions he holds on to his dream to go to Rome to study painting. One day he and his little brother heedlessly enter a minefield. As Ismail faces death, and in his struggle to save himself and his brother, we discover his true spirit. 

After the film, Dr. Ismail Nashef will lecture in Arabic on Nakba and refugeehood in Palestinian art - the first generation as a test case (45 min).
Ticket price: 20 NIS
 

 21:30 - 23:00
(Tel Aviv Cinematheque)
A People Without a Land
Dir.: Eliyahu Ungar-Sargon
USA, 2014
(79 min. Arabic, Heb & Eng. Heb sub)

A compelling documentary that tells the story of individuals who have moved beyond traditional notions of Zionism and are working to build a future based on integration rather than separation. Trailer