A Fidai Film
ABOUT
A film is a fida’i act. In Arabic, “fida’i” means to give oneself fully in service of another, and is linked to the Fidayyin, the freedom fighters of the Palestinian revolution of the 60s and 70s. Kamal Aljafari embraces that revolutionary spirit by recentering Israel’s 1982 looting of Palestinian archives in Beirut. In a captivating cinematic practice of reclamation and resistance, A FIDAI FILM makes visible what was/is Palestinian in the archival image, countering historical appropriation and amnesia. Caution: Film contains strobing lights.
Kamal Aljafari is a Palestinian filmmaker renowned for his distinctive approach to cinema. After studying at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne, he now resides in Berlin, Germany. Aljafari has shared his expertise in filmmaking through teaching positions at The New School in New York and the Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie in Berlin. His contributions to the field were recognised with fellowships at the Film Study Center - Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University and most recently at the Institute for Ideas and Imagination, Columbia University 2024-2025. In May 2024, IndieLisboa will highlight his contributions to cinema by dedicating its retrospective Section to his work and it will take place at the Portuguese cinematheque. Additionally, his installation “The Camera of the Dispossessed” was showcased at the 35th Bienal de São Paulo (2023). His film ‘A Fidai Film’ won the grand jury prize at Visions du Réel 2024. He is currently developing a fiction film set to be shot in Jaffa.
CREDITS
Yannig Willmann
Original Music: Simon Fisher Turner
Line Producer & Assistant Editor: Flavia Mazzarino
Sound Mixing: Jochen Jezussek