Return to Haifa + Q&A 18
Based on the novella by Ghassan Khanafani, Return to Haifa was the only fiction film prodiced 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 sin Khald 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 explores 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. The post screening discussion will be conducted in Arabic and English.
- Duration
- 90 mins
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