London Palestine Film Festival – preview

Kamal Aljafar's Port of Memory

The London Palestinian Film Festival kicked off its pre-festival season with a double bill screening of Kamal Aljafari’s films at Hackney Picturehouse.

The showing opened with Port of Memory, set in the seaside neighbourhood of Jaffa.

It follows a family, played by Aljafari’s aunt and uncle, who face eviction from their home by Israeli settlers. The film is a lyrical meditation on being Palestinian in Israel and there is an unsettling sense of hopelessness throughout the film, indicated by the restless way the characters wander through the deserted town, displaced but without destination.

This is heightened by Aljafari’s use of footage from 1970s American films such as The Delta Force starring Chuck Norris which are full of confidence and conflict compared with the silent stagnation and instability experienced by the Palestinian characters. Aljafari engages tenderly with his subject matter but the problem is there not much of a narrative to follow in Port of Memory which keeps the viewer at arms length and stops them from becoming involved with the characters.

The Roof, Aljafari’s other film, is also set in Ramle and Jaffa. It is an unassuming but touching family portrait which explores similar themes of displacement and state neglect.

There is much more dialogue than in the previous film; from a hilarious exchange between Aljafari and a friend who has been banned from Jordan for insulting the royal family to the grandmother’s heart wrenching account of the deaths of her brothers. Aljafari is an accomplished film maker and he confidently captures the surroundings which are evidently at the crux of both films.

Despite his interest in places and what they mean to their inhabitants, during the question and answer session Aljafari spoke of his reluctance to be pigeonholed as a Palestinian film maker: “This film is a documentary but I am not a documentary film maker. What I am trying to do every time I make a film is to collect information and sounds from people around me.” He added: “I do not want to make a film about how awful it is and portray the Palestinians as victims”.

The festival, which lasts from 20 April to 3 May, showcases the best in Palestinian film with screenings at the Barbican, SOAS and UCL of work by Sameh Zoabi, Tawfik Abu Wael and Susan Sontag.

For more information on the full programme go to The London Palestine Film Festival.