Saturday 25 November 2017 – Film screenings & discussion – Cinema Palestino 2017: Reels of Memory
On the centenary of the Balfour Declaration, Cinema Palestino presents Reels of memory, a reflection on history and memory in Palestinian cinema: an afternoon of films, talks and discussions. The event is a collaboration between Showroom Cinema, Sheffield Palestine Cultural Exchange and Sheffield Hallam University.
The event is part of the AHRC funded Creative interruptions project. For further information contact Dr Anandi Ramamurthy.
Tickets available www.showroomworkstation.org.uk/cinema-palestino
Sign up now to MyShowroom to access Cinema Palestino ticket discount: www.showroomworkstation.org.uk/My
25th Nov 2017 1:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Showroom Cinema, 15 Paternoster Row, Sheffield, , S1 2BX
Cinema Palestino 2017: Reels of Memory
Programme:-
1pm – The Time that Remains
Dir Elia Suleiman (2009)
The film presents a semi-autobiographical account of the Nakba and its consequences in four episodes. Inspired by the private diaries of the film maker’s father, a resistance fighter in 1948, and by his mother’s letters to family members who were forced to leave the country, the film combines intimate memories of Palestinian experience, along with dramatization of catastrophic events, using Suleman’s signature dead pan comic style. ‘There is much to enjoy in The Time That Remains: not merely its breathtaking technique, but the touching moments of gentleness and compassion’ (The Guardian)
The film will be introduced by Dr Anastasia Valassopoulos, University of Manchester. There will be a post screening discussion.
3.20 – BREAK INCLUDING REFRESHMENTS
3.45 – Return to Haifa + director Q&A
Dir Kassem Hawal (1978)
Based on the novella by Ghassan Khanafani, Return to Haifa was the only fiction film produced by the PLO Film Unit. It tells the story of Said and Safeyya, who fled their home in Haifa during the 1948 Nakba. In the chaos and violence of their escape, their five-month old son Khaldun is left behind. Twenty years later when the Mandelbaum Gate is opened they return to Haifa, “to see” as they tell themselves. They find their home occupied by Miriam, a widow whose husband died in the war eleven years earlier, and Dov, their son Khaldun, now an officer dressed in an Israeli military uniform. The story and the film explore loss, memory and exile alongside questions of motherhood, the meaning of homeland and the struggle to return. We are delighted that Kassem Hawal will discuss the film and its making during an extraordinary period of Palestinian film history. Discussant: Shahd Abusalama (Sheffield Hallam University) The post screening discussion will be conducted in Arabic and English.