The twelve-year running festival is on its first regional tour this year creating opportunities for cultural exchange through film. Enjoy this chance to connect with, and get to know, Palestine and Palestinians through a creative showcase of different filmmakers. Please note there are two sessions. Each of the two sessions feature a different selection of films.

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SCREENING ONE at 4:15pm - Alam (drama, runtime 100 mins), playing with Zoo (short, animation 8 mins)

ZOO
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Wandering through the ‘worst Zoo in the world’, a young boy Sami is looking for his football. The child discovers more than his missing ball when he encounters the little tiger Laziz, who follows him on his quest to find a safe place to play. Against all odds, they become friends. However, the remnants of war harbour danger.

This short animation is inspired by Gaza’s Zoo where the animals that died due to the war were embalmed and exhibited. The remaining living animals, including a tiger called Laziz, were rescued to safe reserves. However, nothing has changed for the people living in Gaza.
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Director: Tariq Rimawi
Year: 2022
Genre: Animation, Short
Runtime: 8mins
Rating: unclassified 15+

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ALAM

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Despite being part of a young generation of Palestinians whose families chose to stay and challenge the Israeli state after Al-Nakba, 17-year-old Tamer and his friends are just like any other group of teenage boys. They clumsily search for drugs, flirt with girls, play video games, and slack off at school. However, when an intriguing new student named Maysaa joins their class, Tamer immediately falls for her and is drawn into her political activism.
Together, they join fellow classmates in an operation to covertly raise the Palestinian flag at their school and peacefully disrupt the local celebrations planned for Israel’s Independence Day – otherwise known to Palestinians as a day of mourning and memorialisation of their ethnic cleansing 70 years prior. Unsure of his own political convictions, Tamer must quickly determine what matters to him and what price he is willing to pay for freedom.
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Director: Firas Khoury
Year: 2022
Genre: Drama, Coming-of-Age
Runtime: 100mins
Rating: unclassified 15+

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Event Details‍

3.30 pm - Venue opens
3:55 pm - Theatre doors open
4:15 pm - Screening 1 starts - Zoo followed by Alam
6:15 pm - Screening 1 ends

SCREENING TWO at 7:00pm - Lyd, (sci-fi documentary 78 mins) playing with Resistance Climbing (short, documentary 37 mins)

RESISTANCE CLIMBING

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In the strife-torn hills of Palestine, a diverse crew of Bedouins, activists and urban professionals embrace climbing as a much-needed respite from the burdens of occupation. American writer & climber Andrew Bisharat visits the West Bank to explore his own roots and the power of climbing to transform lives.
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Director: Andrew Bisharat
Year: 2023
Genre: Documentary/Sports
Runtime: 37mins
Rating: unclassified 15+

LYD

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Once a thriving Palestinian city, Lyd was even considered Palestine’s first capital in 636 AD. In 1948, Lyd became an Israeli city, leading to the deaths of hundreds of Palestinian residents and the exile of most of its 50,000 Palestinians by Israeli forces. Today, the city has a Jewish Israeli majority and a Palestinian minority and is disinvested and divided by racism and violence. For Palestinians, Lyd’s story is a painful and tragic fall from grace.

The film dares to ask the question: what would the city be like had the Israeli occupation of Lyd never happened? The city explains that the massacre and expulsion have fractured her reality, and now there are two Lyds – one occupied and one free. Documentary portions follow characters through their daily lives, portraying the Palestinian experience of this city, while vivid animations envision an alternate reality where the same characters are free from trauma and violence. With its transition between fantastical and documentary realities, it ultimately leaves the viewer questioning which future should prevail.

Director: Sarah Ema Friedland & Rami Younis
Year: 2023
Genre: Sci-fi/Documentary
Runtime: 78mins
Rating: unclassified 15+

Event Details

6:40 pm - Theatre doors reopen
7:00 pm - Screening 2 starts - Resistance Climbing followed by Lyd
9:00 pm - Screening 2 ends