The Place That Is Ours

Palestine-Israel
Newcastle, UK
English, Arabic

A daughter returns to her father’s village in Palestine, which was destroyed in 1948. She journeys through unfamiliar landscapes and is confronted with the reality of her own exile.

The Director writes: This is an experimental short film telling the story of one Palestinian’s return to her father’s village destroyed during the events of 1948. The film examines themes of exile, spatial manipulations, longing, occupation and ultimately, return. There is little dialogue. The footage is textured with a poem I wrote and an electronic score. I flit indistinctly into shots throughout the film in various locations – at the Wall in Bethlehem, in a destroyed house in the ruins of the village of Lifta – but only at the end do I come into focus, collecting a cup of earth and looking straight at the camera: an invitation to reckon with the loss of a homeland. In many ways, the plot happened over seventy years ago, the purpose of this film is bear witness to what has been left behind.