The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing, dir. Theo Panagopoulos, UK 2024, 17'/[They Do Not Exist], directed by Mustafa Abu Ali, Palestine 1974, 25'

Silent Flowers, Witnesses, dir. Theo Panagopoulos UK 2024, 17 min

When a Palestinian filmmaker living in Scotland discovers a rarely shown Scottish film archive documenting Palestinian wildflowers, he decides to recover the footage. This affectionate film essay raises questions about the role of the image as a tool of both testimony and violence, revealing the complex relationships between people and the earth. Festivals and awards: IDFA (Best Short Film), BAFTA (Best British Short Film nomination), European Film Awards (European Short Film nomination), Sundance FF (Short Film Grand Jury Prize), Edinburgh IFF, Slamdance FF, London Short FF, Ghent IFF, Go Short (Best European Short Documentary)

Those Who Don't Exist, directed by Mustafa Abu Ali, Palestine 1974, 25 min | Polish premiere

A landmark documentary of Palestinian revolutionary cinema, filmed in Lebanese refugee camps in the late 1960s. Responding to Golda Meir's words that Palestinians “don't exist,” the film combines images of everyday life in the camps, Israeli bombing and militant training with poetic commentary and experimental editing. Abu Ali shows the Palestinian experience of exile and resistance, while inscribing it in the broader history of the struggle against colonialism and imperialism. Survived from the ruins of Beirut after 1982 - after the second Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the film became one of the foundations of Palestinian cinema - almost inaccessible for years, in 2003 it saw a symbolic screening in the director's native Jerusalem. Festivals and awards: Leipzig FF (Diploma of Honor), Cartage FF (Prize of the Arab Critics Union), Media City FF, Cinéma du Réel, Valdivia IFF, Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg, Dokufest

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