A Fidai Film 13V(PPS)

When the Israeli Defence force invaded Southern Lebanon in the summer of 1982, they stole the archive collection of photographs and film from Beirut’s Palestine Research Center. In this hypnotic and deftly constructed experimental film, Palestinian director and artist Kamal Aljafari reclaims these images, which have been stored for decades by the Israeli Ministry of Defense, reconstructing them into a narrative of fragmentation that is far more reflective of the region’s history than the one presented in western media. While its bewitching broken beauty is engaging on its own terms, A Fidai Film is fundamentally a political act that transcends the usual parameters of cinema, even as a deep love for the form informs it. By re-appropriating the archive—so filled with life, memories, and otherwise invisible histories—Aljafari counters the ongoing attempt to erase the visual and institutional memory of the region, and shows how the plundering of memory is central to the broader violence of imperialism.