THE DREAM + THERE ARE SO MANY THINGS STILL TO SAY - ALFILM Arab Film Festival Berlin

Das sagt der/die Veranstalter:in:

Double Feature: The Dream & There Are So Many Things Still to Say 

The Dream
Documentary, director: Mohamad Malas, Syria, 1987, 45 min., Arab. with En. ST

Shot in 1980-1981, the film is composed of interviews with Palestinians, including children, women, elderly people, and militants living in refugee camps in Lebanon. Malas asks his interviewees about their dreams at night and they all revolve around Palestine. A woman recounts her dreams about winning the war; a fedai of bombardment and martyrdom; and one man tells of a dream where he meets and is ignored by Gulf emirs. During filming Malas lived in the camps and had conversations with more than 400 people. In 1982 the Sabra and Shatila massacres occurred, taking the lives of several people he interviewed, and he stopped working on the project. He returned to it in 1986 and edited the many hours of footage gathered into this 45-minute film, released in 1987.

There Are So Many Things Still to Say
Documentary, director: Omar Amiralay, Syria/France, 1997, 52 min. Arab. with En. ST

A few months before dying of cancer, Syrian dramatist Saadallah Wannous engages with his friend Omar Amiralay in a long conversation on the question of Palestine and the Arab-Israeli conflict. Wannous narrates his somber and relentless reflections – an adieu to a generation for whom this conflict has been a foil for forging a political identity and its aftermath the source of all disillusion. He recounts, with regret for the lost opportunities that resulted, how the Palestinian struggle became a central part of intellectual life for an entire generation.