Syndicate: D-Day 11: May 20, 1999: Pictures from Palestin

[koen.vandaele@guest.arnes.si]

Dear,

On the occasion of Yasser Arafat's "wise" decision not to declare a
Palestinian State on May 4th; and on the occasion of the May 17th
elections in Israel, D-Day 11 presents "Pictures from Palestine".

At 7.15 and at 8pm we will screen MA'LOUL CELEBRATES ITS DESTRUCTION
and THE FERTILE MEMORY,  by the Palestinian director Michel Khleifi. 
At 10pm we continue with one of the first Arab feature films to
address the "Question of Palestine" (THE DUPES, 1972, dir. by Tewfik
Saleh; based upon Ghassan Kanafani's novella "Men in the Sun"). 
(More details below)

Hope to see you on Thursday in Slovenska kinoteka.

Best regards,
Koen Van Daele
programme curator & coordinator 

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PROGRAM - DETAILS

D-Day 11: Dan za dokumentarec
May 20, 1999
Slovenska kinoteka, Ljubljana

AT 7.15 pm:
MA'LOUL CELEBRATES ITS DESTRUCTION
Dir.: Michel Khleifi; phot.: Yves Vandermeeren; sound: Ricardo
Castro; editing: Dominique Loreau, Monique Riesling; prod.: Michel
Khleifi, Perrine Humblet; coprod.: Marisa Films, CBA. 
1984, 30 min., col., 16mm (Arabic - English subtitles).

Ma'loul is a Palestinian village in Galilee. In 1948 it was destroyed
by the Israeli armed forces. The villagers were expropriated and
expelled either to Lebanon or to Nazareth. All that was left were two
churches and a mosque, the last visible reminders for those who travel
between Haifa and Nazareth. They disappeared with the time going,
hidden by a forest planted to the memory of the victims of nazism. 
In this way the Israeli authorities annihilated hundreds of Arab
villages. 
Once a year -- cynically enough on Israel's Independence Day -- the
former inhabitants of Ma'loul are allowed to visit the site. For that
very special day, they organise a picnic on the remains of their
destroyed village.
(More @: http://www.sindibad.co.uk/films/maloul.html )

AT 8 pm:
SUWAR MIN MUDHAKKIRAT KHASBAH (The Fertile Memory)
Dir. & prod.: Michel Khleifi; photo.: Yves Vandermeeren and
Marc-Andre Batigne; sound: Ricardo Castro; editing: Moufida Tlatli;
music: Jacqueline Rosenfeld, Janos Gillis; prod.: Marisa Films.
1980, 99 min., col., 16mm (Arabic - English subtitles).

THE FERTILE MEMORY is neither a documentary nor a fiction. The film
portrays the daily lives of two very different Palestinian women:
Farah  Hatoum, a widow living with her children and grandchildren;
and Sahar Khalifeh, a West Bank novelist. Farah --now in her late
fifties-- has been a widow since 1948, when her husband fled to Beirut
and died there. Left to raise children alone, with her land
expropriated, she worked for many years in a local monastery before
going to an Israeli textile factory. Now that her children are
grown, she finds herself at odds with them, not only over the issue
of land but also over the lifestyles they've adopted. 
Sahar married at the age of 18 and has two daughters. After 13 years
and tremendous resistance --including the threat of losing her
children-- she managed to get a divorce. Pursuing a career as a
writer, she publishes 3 novels and goes back to study at Birzeit
University. While she obviously shares many of the preoccupations of
the younger students at Birzeit, and enjoys a certain closeness with
her daughters, she's separated from them by her age and experience.
In THE FERTILE MEMORY the contrasts between the traditional matriarch
and the modern feminist are only too apparent. But regardless of
their obvious differences, the two women are united by their shared
status as Palestinians under Israeli rule, and as women in a male
dominated society. Khleifi is able to make the facts of their lives
resonate as the human details of a whole society. As a result he has
created what is probably the most effective filmic study on the
complexities of the Palestinian experience. 
(More @: http://www.sindibad.co.uk/films/Fertil.html )

AT 10 pm:
THE DUPES
Written and directed by: Tewfik Saleh; photo.: Bahgat Heidar; editing:
Saheb Haddad; music: Solhi El-Wadi. 
Syria, 1972, 107 min., b&w, 35mm (videoprojection),  (Arabic -
English subtitles).

"And my father once said: a man without a homeland will have no grave
in the earth... and he forbade me to leave". 
THE DUPES is one of the masterpieces of modern Arab cinema. Shot in
stunning black and white, the film is based on the 1962 novella "Men
in the Sun", written by the assassinated Palestinian poet, writer and
resistance leader Ghassan Kanafani. 
The story is set in Basra (Iraq) in the late fifties. Three
Palestinians --brought together by their dispossession, despair, and
longing for a better life-- want to get into Kuwait in the hope of
finding there their "Promised Land". Under a burning desert sun, they
try to make their way across the borders, concealed in the steel hull
of a truck... 
The Dupes is one of the first Arab fiction films to address the
"Question of Palestine". 
(More @: http://www.arabfilm.com/films/syria/dupes/dupes.htm )

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Palestine on the net:
*** Birzeit University has an excellent site: http://www.birzeit.edu/
including:
* THE Complete Guide to Palestine's Websites:
http://www.birzeit.edu/links/index.html
* Palestine's first internet radio station OUTLOUD:
http://www.birzeit.edu/outloud
* Media and News links:
http://www.birzeit.edu/links/nnm.html

(If you're interested in the Middle East, check out one of THE
quality newspapers from the region: the Egyptian AL-AHRAM WEEKLY:
http://www.ahram.org.eg/weekly)

** Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center, Ramallah ("your window to the
arts and culture of Palestine"): http://www.sakakini.org/

** Commemorating Ghassan Kanafani: http://brechtforum.org/may8.html

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TICKETS:
at 7.15 pm: 400 SIT
at 8.00 pm: 500 SIT
at 10 pm: 500 SIT
Complete D-Day 11: 1100 SIT

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The series D-Day: Dan za dokumentarec is produced by OPEN SOCIETY
INSTITUTE SLOVENIA; in collaboration with OPEN SOCIETY NETWORK
PROGRAMS - SOROS DOCUMENTARY FUND (New York). Executive producer:
SLOVENSKA KINOTEKA.

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Koen Van Daele
Program coordinator D-Day: Dan za dokumentarec
phone: -386-61/329.184
fax: -386-61/13.23.092
email: Koen.VanDaele@guest.arnes.si
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