London Palestine Film Festival 2024
NOVEMBER 15 - 29
barbican cinemas | bertha dochouse | curzon CINEMAS | the garden cinema | GENESIS CINEMA | ICA | Riverside Studios | SOAS UNIVERSITY | Sands Films Studio
Following the commissioned performance which opened the festival at Barbican Cinema 1 on Friday, November 15, London Palestine Film Festival returned to 10 cinemas across London with its annual programme showcasing both highly established filmmakers as well as fresh and emerging talent. The 2024 edition of the festival featured new releases and archival footage on the big screen at Barbican Cinemas, Bertha DocHouse, Curzon Hoxton and Soho, ICA and The Garden Cinema, Genesis, Riverside Studios, Sands Films Studio and SOAS University of London - and the national screenings of From Ground Zero from Scotland to Oxford.
A GRAIN OF SAND حبة رمل
+facilitated discussion
Friday 15 November | 19:00 | BARBICAN CINEMA 1
OPENING NIGHT
One-woman show based on real events in Gaza. Performed by Sarah Agha, written and directed by Elias Matar, commissioned by London Palestine Film Festival.
The roller, the life, the fight +screen talk
Saturday 16 November | 15:30 | THE GARDEN CINEMA
Hazem arrives in Belgium after a painful journey from Gaza. At the same time, Elettra arrives in Brussels to study documentary film. Their first moments together reveal a triggering desire to know each other, the camera becomes the tool they share for understanding.
FAMILIAR PHANTOMS TRIPLE BILL +Screen talk
Saturday 16 November | 18:30 | ICA
Familiar Phantoms is inspired by anecdotes from Larissa Sansour’s own family history and her old childhood in Bethlehem, making it her most personal film to date. This 2023 short will be screening alongside two of Sansour’s acclaimed shorts.
SHORTS SESSION: REAL VISIONs
Sunday 17 November | 14:30 | THE GARDEN CINEMA
This selection of non-fiction shorts play cross images, dreams, realities and memories. What proof do images reveal? How do visible truths affect our understanding of actualities, and our future existence?
the fifth war
Sunday 17 November | 18:00 | ICA
Fronted by Vanessa Redgrave and narrated entirely in English, The Fifth War gives a visceral account of the 1978 ‘Litani Operation’, in which Israeli forces invaded south Lebanon aiming to eradicate the PLO.
To a land unknown +Screen talk
Monday 18 November | 18:10 | BARBICAN CINEMA 2
In Mahdi Fleifel’s raw, resonant drama, a Palestinian refugee living on the fringes of society in Athens gets ripped off by a smuggler and sets out to seek revenge.
To a land unknown +Screen talk
Tuesday 19 November | 18:20 | CURZON SOHO
In Mahdi Fleifel’s raw, resonant drama, a Palestinian refugee living on the fringes of society in Athens gets ripped off by a smuggler and sets out to seek revenge.
SHORTS SESSION: DREAMS AND GHOSTS
Wednesday 20 November | 20:45 | BARBICAN CINEMA 3
In this selection of short films, characters face the visible versus the invisible. In a world where the past is always present, a yearning for a better future leads the way.
To a Land Unknown
Thursday 21 November | 20:30 | BARBICAN CINEMA 2
In Mahdi Fleifel’s raw, resonant drama, a Palestinian refugee living on the fringes of society in Athens gets ripped off by a smuggler and sets out to seek revenge.
Book Launch: Afterlife of Images by Azza ElHassan
Friday 22 November | 19:00 | SOAS UNIVERSITY
Based on the practice-based creative methodology of Palestinian filmmaker and researcher Azza El Hassan, The Afterlife of Palestinian Images explores how colonial violence alters visual objects - which in turn affects how a society and culture relates to its own images.
Izkor: Slaves of Memory +screen talk
Saturday 23 November | 18:00 | CURZON SOHO
Gathered from all around the world, Israelis today are united by an “official” collective memory that led to the national formation of Israel. How has this collective memory developed? What are the symbols that contribute to its strength? And to what purpose is it being used?
A Fidai Film
Sunday 24 November | 16:30 | ICA
Investigating the looting of Palestinian films which took place in Beirut in 1982, the film uses this event as a premise in order to make visible materials hidden in Israeli archives, and proposes a counter-narrative of a continuous history of appropriation.
Lyd
Monday 25 November | 18:20 | CURZON HOXTON
This sci-fi documentary tells a story of a city that once connected Palestine to the world: Mixing testimonies of extreme violence with speculations on what the potential of this city could have brought, this documentary follows the rise and fall of the city of Lyd.
SHORTS SESSION: STICKING TOGETHER
Tuesday 26 November | 18:20 | CURZON HOXTON
This selection has a focus on solidarity and camaraderie. Animation, drama, and comedy: Some based on true stories, each of these films present the need and importance of bonds and kinship in dire times.
Edward Said: The Last Interview
Tuesday 26 November | 18:20 | BARBICAN CINEMA 3
This screening of Mike Dibb’s celebrated extended conversation with Edward Said coincides with the reissue of the groundbreaking literary scholar’s The Question of Palestine through Fitzcarraldo Editions
ORAIB TOUkAN: Imaging the image
Wednesday 27 November | 18:20 | BERTHA DOCHOUSE
Three of Oraib Toukan’s films borne out of her study of photography, film and text: Over images both found and created, bringing us memories, reveries, and snapshots of the everyday, we hear the voices of eminent scholars and practitioners.
THE TEACHER
+SCREEN TALK
Thursday 28 November | 20:15 | RIVERSIDE STUDIOS
From the BAFTA-winning, Oscar-nominated director, Farah Nabulsi, comes her long awaited first feature film: Saleh Bakri, plays the eponymous school teacher trying to protect his students from a life stifled under Israeli occupation.
From Ground Zero
(UK PREMIERE)
Friday 29 November | MULTIPLE CINEMAS
From Ground Zero is a collection of 22 short films made in Gaza over the past year. Initiated by Palestinian director Rashid Masharawi, the project brings us the voices of 22 Gazan filmmakers telling untold stories of the current war on film.
OUR SPONSORS
WITH ADDITIONAL SUPPORT FROM
EVENTS IN 2024
PAST EVENT: TO A LAND UNKNOWN (PREVIEW SCREENING) +SCREEN TALK
PAST EVENT: From Ground Zero (multi-cinema uk premiere)
PASt EVENT: TOMORROW’s FREEDOM +Screen talk
