As part of the fourth edition of Palestine Cinema Days Around the World, Het Documentaire Paviljoen presents a free screening of two foundational masterpieces of early Palestinian dissident cinema.

They Do Not Exist (1974) by Mustapha Abu Ali
This film captures daily resilience, the devastating aftermath of bombardments within Lebanon's Nabatia refugee camp, and the training of Palestinian fighters. By blending poetic narration with experimental editing, this historic work links the local struggle to global liberation movements and stands as a cornerstone of revolutionary cinema salvaged from Beirut in 1982. It is a powerful counter-narrative to political claims denying Palestinian existence.

The Dream (1987) by Mohamad Malas
In the Arabic Language there is a phonetic compatibility between the word “Dream” and the word “Film”, and often the person asking and the one answering get them confused. Is there in this “Confusion” a kind of Indication?!

A lot of whom I presented in this movie are talking about their dreams, the dream was represented a movie for each one of them. I didn’t get involved in the controversy of whether their dreams are true or not. Just the fact that those dreams are adopted by their owners was enough for me to include them in the discourse of my movie. For I already saw in those people: reality/memory / fantasy. They had the right to narrate, I took the right to choose: the place, the act, the light and of course the size of each shot, because the discourse is mere novelist. This documentary filmed in the Palestinian refugees in 1980 is the only one to choose the dream is instead of the reality, since the public was capable to know about their daily share of suffering and death that those uprooted from their homeland.


About Palestine Cinema Days
In October 2023 the tenth edition of the Palestine Cinema Days Festival was meant to be a major celebration, marking a milestone in the festival’s history reaffirming its role as a central platform for Palestinian cinema. As the physical festival could not take place, Palestine Cinema Days Around the World was launched offering a selection of films amplifying Palestinian voices through cinema.