Palestine—Memory of the Land
[Venue] CS Yamagata Citizens’ Hall (Small Hall)
This special feature introduces works that focus on the memories of people with roots in the land of Palestine. Fertile Memory depicts the unshakable resolve of Palestinian women living under the oppression of patriarchy and the occupation and usurpation of the region. It was this pioneering work that brought Palestinian film to the world’s attention. A Magical Substance Flows into Me juxtaposes a celebration of Palestine’s rich musical tradition with a critical examination of the colonial legacy of musicology. A Fidai Film investigates the colonizer’s falsification of history by means of a “film archive.” And Light Horizon exhibits the damaged buildings of Syria’s Golan Heights, a place whose struggle resonates with Palestine’s, to stage the recollection of a lost everyday life. Finally, through screenings of the YIDFF 2013 International Competition (IC) Grand Prize-winning filmmaker Mahdi Fleifel’s new film drama To a Land Unknown, IC juror Azza El-Hassan’s Kings and Extras, the IC-selected With Hasan in Gaza, the short film Scenes of the Occupation from Gaza depicting Gaza as it was fifty years ago, and through Q&A sessions, we will consider not only this land’s tragic history of destruction and violence but, most of all, its future.
*Photo Exhibition on Palestine will be held at Yamagata Citizens’ Hall Gallery.
- Line-up
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Fertile Memory
Dir: Michel Khleifi / PALESTINE, GERMANY, THE NETHERLANDS, BELGIUM / 1980 / 99 min
A Magical Substance Flows into Me
Dir: Jumana Manna / PALESTINE, GERMANY, UK / 2016 / 68 min
A Fidai Film
Dir: Kamal Aljafari / PALESTINE, GERMANY, QATAR, BRAZIL, FRANCE / 2024 / 78 min
Light Horizon
Dir: Randa Maddah / GOLAN HEIGHTS / 2012 / 8 min
To a Land Unknown
Dir: Mahdi Fleifel / UK, FRANCE, GERMANY, GREECE, THE NETHERLANDS, QATAR, SAUDI ARABIA, PALESTINE / 2024 / 105 min
Scenes of the Occupation from Gaza
Dir: Mustafa Abu Ali / LEBANON / 1973 / 13 min
With Hasan in Gaza
Dir: Kamal Aljafari / PALESTINE, GERMANY, FRANCE, QATAR / 2025 / 106 min / International Competition
Kings and Extras
Dir: Azza El-Hassan / PALESTINE, GERMANY, FRANCE, UK / 2004 / 62 min / International Competition Juror’s Film