63 min
Kamal Aljafari
Fiction
2009 - Palestine, United Arab Emirates/Germany/France
Premiere Location
Featuring: Salim Bilbesi, George Khleifi, Angel Hamati, Sadika Bilbesi, Ashraf Saqer, Fatmeh Bilbesi
The emptying of Jaffa, a thriving urban and economic port city in pre-1948 Palestine, of its indigenous residents, is a story rarely told. Aljafari’s film follows his family after they receive an order to evacuate their home in Ajami, Jaffa’s once-wealthy sea-front neighbourhood. Their lives and those of the other residents are thrown into disarray because they don’t have the means to fight back. Radically poetic, Port of Memory is a reflection on the absurdity of being at once absent and present, blending the mundane gestures of everyday life and collective memory. Traveling from the subjective to the objective, the film captures the essence of being Palestinian in Israel, as well as under occupation in the West Bank and Gaza.
Screened at Images Festival (2010); Middle East International Film Festival (2009) Arab Film Festival (2010)
Co-presented by Images Festival
Screened with In Israel's Custody