94 min
Raed Andoni
Documentary
2017 - France/Palestine/Switzerland/Qatar

North American Premiere

Director Raed Andoni places a newspaper advertisement in Ramallah. He is looking for former inmates of the Moskobiya interrogation centre in Jerusalem who also are craftsmen, architects or actors. After a casting process that almost feels like role play, he arranges for a replica of the centre's interrogation rooms and cells to be built to scale inside a hall - under close supervision from the former inmates and based on their memories. In this realistic setting the men subsequently re-enact their interrogations, discuss details about the prison, and express the humiliation they experienced during their detention. Using techniques that are reminiscent of the so-called 'theatre of the oppressed' they work together to dramatise their real-life experiences. Their reconstruction brings long repressed emotions and undealt trauma to the fore. Working on the film takes its toll on the men - both physically and mentally. The director also appears in front of the camera; not only is he creating a stage for his protagonists, he is also coming to terms with his own fragmented memories of imprisonment in Moskobiya thirty years ago.

Q&A with director to follow.

Co-presenters:
Prisoner Correspondence Project Toronto
SJP Ryerson