Sunday 10 December 2023, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Nakba film * free screening * doors open at 8pm * intro & film start at 8.30
At the beginning of this flick, the director comes across a man who tells the story of a secret that everyone else denies and says is a fabrication. But as audio tapes and photographs are taken out of cardboard boxes, the horrible truth of what happened in the village is reconstructed. Additional archival film material, including unused news material that was shot by the BBC, is also brought in to help uncover the tragedy.
Now a cosy gentrified place, the very name of the town becomes tainted, the place feels like a horror story. This is a dynamite documentary that almost feels like a detective story at times, and one that is absolutely crucial to understand current events today. Besides laying out historical events, we are set on a course to wonder at the power of collective amnesia, or rather the forced-amnesia of an entire population. So in that light, although the film is about Israel in 1948, it could also be applicable to many places around the world. For example, it’s similar to how people in America treat their history of the Native American Indians, or the dropping of atomic bombs on civilian targets in Japan. And since we are living in Holland, I would extend that also to how Jews were treated here during World War II when 82% of the Jewish population were sent to death camps, and yet Holland only likes to talk about its almost nonexistent “resistance movement”.
Events are not isolated. History is always contextual or not at all. One has to always look at the bigger picture and not simply emotionally respond to a single incident, otherwise it makes no sense. So in order to understand something that burst out two months ago in Israel and Palestine, you have to also take into account an incident that happened in 1948. Today, as Gaza shifts from an “open air concentration camp” to a death camp, it’s important to understand what kick-started the problem. In 1948 Israel waged its ‘war of independence’, which meant hundreds of Palestinian villages were destroyed to make room for the new state of Israel. This film examines one small village – – and uses it as a microcosm for a larger tragedy that happened all across Palestine known as “Al Nakba” – the disaster. The film also explores why recognition of the “Nakba” is taboo in Israeli society. And before we jump to any conclusions, let’s keep in mind that the director of this film is Israeli.
Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Free entrance. You want to screen a movie, let us know: joe [at] lists [dot] squat [dot] net
