Cinema of Palestinian Return
Friday, May 3 – Saturday, May 18
Anthology Film Archives

The month of May marks the 76th year of the nakba, a commemoration soaked in the blood of Gaza, whose people have faced relentless massacre and dispossession by Western and Zionist forces. Preserving, circulating, and politically engaging with the cultural production of the Palestinian struggle is a minimum demand. The films that emerged from this struggle are tethered to the dreams of the Palestinian people, who despite setback and catastrophe continue to assert their right to return to their homeland.
 
“Cinema of Palestinian Return” is guest-programmed by Kaleem Hawa and Nadine Fattaleh.

OCCUPIED PALESTINE, PROGRAM 3
Borhane Alaouié
KAFR QASIM
1975, 108 min, 35mm-to-DCP. In Arabic with English subtitles.
“The Lebanese master Borhane Alaouié’s first feature film, KAFR QASIM recreates a day in the life of the eponymous village, made site of a 1956 Zionist massacre. Based on a novelization by ʿAsim al-Jundi, the film’s narrative threads remain unresolved, a tale of forty-nine lives cut short by a tightening project of settlement. Filmed in the Syrian village of al-Shaykh Saad, the film suggests entangled Arab fates, producing a coldly realist depiction of the nature of Zionist occupation and the functioning of power, labor, and capital in historic Palestine.” –Kaleem Hawa