Khiam: A documentary filmed in 1999 and completed in 2000.

It was not possible to go to Khiam detention camp before the liberation of South Lebanon in May 2000. The camp is located in an area occupied by Israeli forces and their affiliated militia, the South Lebanon Army. We had heard about this camp but had never seen any pictures. In 1999, we met six liberated detainees to recall their experiences. We tried to reconstruct the detention camp and daily life there through their testimonies in as much detail as possible. Words made up for the absence of pictures. Sonia, Afif, Suha, Rajai, Kifah, and Niman, who were detained for nearly ten years, tell stories about the camp and their steadfastness, especially resistance by making a needle, a pencil, a prayer bead, a chessboard, sculpting, and other things in secret. Faced with the deprivation of their basic needs, the detainees have developed and exchanged amazing artistic techniques to communicate with others, to create, to rebel, and to preserve the humanity that this camp is trying to uproot.

Khiam, Part II: Video filmed in 2007.

After the liberation of southern Lebanon in 2000, the Khiam detention center was transformed into a museum. The camp was completely destroyed during the Israeli war on Lebanon in 2006. Hadjithomas and Gregg meet again with the six detainees they filmed with in 1999, to reflect on their reaction to the destruction of the camp in which they had been held for all those years. They share their thoughts on memory, history, reconstruction, imagination, and most importantly, on the proposal that some were making at the time: to rebuild the Khiam camp in an identical manner. But is it possible to rebuild a concentration camp? What would it mean? How do we preserve the trace?

Directed by Joana Hadjithomas