Al Nakba
The Catastrophe
Rawan Damen
venerdì 18 sett, h 20.30, Parco, Tenda Grande (I parte)
sabato 19 sett, h 17.00, Parco, Tenda Grande (II parte)
Al Nakba
The Catastrophe
Paese/Country: Qatar
Anno Produzione Film: 2008
Formato/Format: DigiBeta
Durata/Running Time: 200'
Produzione/Production: Al Jazeera
Sceneggiatura/Screenplay: Rawan Damen
Montaggio/Editing: Naser Abu Tayeh
Fotografia/Cinematography: Rawan Damen
Distribuzione/Distribution: Al Jazeera
Quella che la regista giordana Rawan Damen ci restituisce in questo documentario è una Palestina sconosciuta, un paese di antica cultura araba nel cuore del Mediterraneo: un paese di mercanti, artigiani, letterati e studiosi, e di contadini che per generazioni hanno coltivato terre naturalmente molto fertili. Attraverso i filmati e i documenti utilizzati dalla regista, passiamo dall'impero degli ottomani e quello degli inglesi, alla creazione dello stato d'Israele, fino alla spartizione delle terre della Palestina. Documenti che mostrano come gli ebrei non si siano accontentati delle zone loro assegnate e abbiano attaccato città e villaggi fino ad arrivare, nel 1948, alla cacciata di migliaia di palestinesi: oggi quell'evento viene ricordano da questi ultimi come al nakba, la catastrofe, il disastro. Quelli che restano nelle proprie terre perdono i diritti più basilari: i diritti alla libertà e alla giustizia.
Il documentario ripercorre con attenzione i sessanta anni di durissima occupazione israeliana e l'apartheid vissuto dai palestinesi attraverso immagini drammatiche.
La regista ci mostra il volto umano delle vittime, ci fa ascoltare i ricordi amari degli anziani, le domande e i sogni dei giovani e le voci degli storici. Comprendiamo così verità da sempre taciute e falsificate dai media mondiali, succubi e complici di una precisa strategia politica.
The one we see in the film is an unfamiliar Palestine, a Mediterranean country with an ancient Arab culture from which came merchants, artisans, scholars, and farmers that for generations have farmed a fertile land. We witness the Ottoman and the English domination, the creation of the state of Israel, and the partition of the Palestinian land. As the Jews were not satisfied with the land they were given, they started attacking cities and villages, until in 1948 they expelled thousands of Palestinians, who recall the event as "al nakba", the catastrophe, or the disaster. Those who remained in their land lost even their basic rights, such as the right to freedom and justice. We follow the dramatic images of the sixty years of terrible Israeli occupation and Palestinian apartheid. Filmmaker Rawan Damen shows us their human experiences, and reports about old men's bitter memories, young peopleÕs questions and dreams, and the historiansÕ voices. We get to understand truths which have always been distorted or left untold by the international media, enslaved by and supporters of a precise political strategy.
Note di regia / Director's Statement
When Al Jazeera Network granted me the opportunity to do a documentary to be shown on Al Nakba 60th anniversary on Al Jazeera Arabic channel, I felt the great responsibility. Hundreds of documentaries in tens of languages have been done about Palestine and Palestinians and a few of them had great impact on Pan-Arab and International levels to raise awareness about this story that main stream media either manipulated or ignored. I felt that something new needed to be done. I felt something is missing in all long films I saw about Palestine and that is the "historical roots". Why we are having all this oppression, ethnic cleansing and killing nowadays in Palestine? Why United States of America and many influential powers are backing Israel with all its violations to human rights? To understand those questions and be able to answer them, one needs to know the history: how it all started and why. Those questions needed me to dig deep in history and find some enlightening answers.
This film tired to say clearly that when we say 60th anniversary of Al Nakba (1948 - 2008) we do not mean that the Palestinian story started in 1948. Not at all, 1948 was a result of a lot of work that Zionists put to ethnic cleanse the Palestinian land and transfer it to a new country called "Israel" with the backing of Britain at the beginning and USA taking the leading role after 1942. And Al Nakba (the catastrophe as the Palestinian call it) when around 850 000 Palestinians were kicked from their homes was not the end of the story. Those refugees are now over five million people. The kicking of Palestinians did not end. It is done every single day from 1948 till today but in a slow process and on individual bases rather than in a mass way as 1948.
In this film I tried to combine historians with eye witnesses including Palestinian refugees living in the West Bank, Jordan and Lebanon along with British soldiers who served during the mandate period in Palestine. That helped to draw a much larger deeper picture.
I gave my heart to this film and spent over 16 hours a day working for over six months to accomplish it in four hours (200 minutes) in Arabic language. Then I supervised its translation to English and it got, thanks God, the first prize for a documentary about Palestine in April 2009 in Al Jazeera Fifth International Documentary Festival. Then, it was translated to Portuguese and shown in three major cinemas in Brazil and translated to Spanish and is now translated to Italian to be shown in Milano. I am wondering what Italians would say about this film? Would they learn something new? Would they enjoy it? Would they teach their children that one should never give up the struggle to achieve the right of a peaceful homeland? And would the word "Palestine" and "Palestinian" mean something different after seeing the film? I hope...
Rawan Damen Anno di Nascita/Date of Birth: 1979
Paese/Country: Jordany
Biografia/Biography:
Producer/Director at Al Jazeera Network. Did twelve documentaries on Arab Pioneer Women and four hours documentary Al Nakba that won the best prize on a long documentary about Palestine in Al Jazeera fifth international documentary festival. She is the co-author of four books on Palestine. MA Documentary from Leeds University, England, 2003. BA Media and Sociology from Birzeit University, 2001.
Filmografia/FilmographyAl Nakba (The Catastrophe), Qatar, 2008, doc
The Bitter Peace, Qatar, 2009, doc
