12/17/2023-|Last update: 12/17/202311:00 PM (Mecca time)
Oman – The curtain came down in the Jordanian capital, Amman, last Tuesday evening, on the fourteenth session of the Karama Human Rights Film Festival, in a special edition for Palestine in conjunction with the devastating Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, where the organizers expressed the importance of this festival “as an act of resistance that confronts the propaganda of the occupation.” The festival screens witnessed the showing of 30 films over a period of 8 days, which dealt with the Palestinian issue in its various dimensions and the killing, forced displacement and genocide that the Palestinian people have been subjected to for 75 years.
Red carpet covering Gaza
The festival opened by reviewing memories from its exceptional edition that was held in the Gaza Strip during the 2014 aggression, where a long red carpet was spread among the rubble of demolished homes, at that time, in the besieged Strip, which was devoid of a single cinema hall due to the occupation. The carpet was not spared from the Israeli siege, and was detained for a period. At that time at the Beit Hanoun crossing.
Karama Human Rights Film Festival poster (Al Jazeera)
“We resist with images,” with this sentence the organizers of the festival expressed its current session. In 2015, the red carpet was laid to reach a square among the ruins of buildings, in which seats were lined up with a large screen in the open air.
Today, all of Gaza lies on a large red carpet of blood, covering it from north to south, and the image is being fought over, and its carriers are sometimes “revenged” with their children, as happened with Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Gaza, Wael Al-Dahdouh, who had an expressive speech during the festival, in which he talked about The war is on the novel, and revenge extends to their mothers and fathers, as happened with Al-Dahdouh’s colleagues, Anas Al-Sharif and Moamen Al-Sharafi.
The organizers of the festival’s closing ceremony confirm that the occupation takes revenge on the photo by targeting its owners themselves on many other occasions, which was exemplified by the screening of the closing film “Targeting Bank” by the martyr Palestinian director Rushdi al-Sarraj, who was martyred in the current aggression, so that the director of this documentary became part of the document.
Between the film “Red Carpet” at the opening and the film “Targeting Bank”, the days of the first festival of its kind in the world in the field of human rights showcased a number of films by Arab and foreign directors, covering different stories from around the world, in addition to a number of workshops and seminars on cinema, rights and human rights.
Festival director Sawsan Darwaza told Al Jazeera Net, “This year’s Karama Festival comes with an exceptional edition (the Palestine edition) as a special tribute to Palestine and Gaza – the city of heroes – in light of the genocidal war, which aims to eliminate it and displace our people from it, which brings us back to our intellectual and moral duty in addressing the issue.” Palestine again.
“Come on Gaza”
On its first day, the festival screened the film “Yalla Gaza” by French director Roland Nourer, which won the “Audience Award.” It is a film that shows the population diversity of the Gaza Strip, chronicles the city and deals with its cultural and social diversity.
The film also sheds light on the accumulations left by successive Israeli wars on the besieged Strip through live testimonies from Gazans, and various testimonies from historians and international researchers, such as British director Kim Loach, who joined the movement to boycott Israel and is considered a supporter of Palestine.
The French director Nourer sent a video message to the festival on the sidelines of the screening of his film, in which he said that he “feels ashamed of the position of the French government and the international community in the face of the genocidal war in Gaza.” This session also selected a large group of iconic Palestinian films, including documentaries and fiction, which The issue was discussed historically and in its current time, in the presence of the directors of these films, which were discussed live with the audience in the festival halls, and their messages were sent from Amman to Gaza.
Sarura
The film “Sarora” by Italian director Nicola Zambelli won the Anhar Award for Human Rights Films, an award that was retained in this year’s edition of the festival along with the Audience Award, while the rest of the festival’s four awards (the Best Narrative Feature Film Award and the Best Feature Film Award) were withheld. Documentary, Short Film Award, and Animation Film Award) in solidarity with the Palestinian people.
The director told Al Jazeera Net that his film tells the story of the decades-long resistance of a displaced Palestinian community to the occupation’s evacuation attempts, and the film deals with the story of children whom the director met in a previous work called “Tomorrow’s Land”, and who have today become leaders in their village’s struggle.
Organizers of the film event in Jordan said that the festival is a special tribute to Palestine and Gaza in light of the genocidal war (Al Jazeera)
Zambelli adds, “The film sheds light on the origins of violence, and challenges the Israeli narrative around terms such as terrorism,” and the director asserts that “those who sow terror are those who attempt to occupy lands, practice armed aggression, and obstruct pastoral and agricultural activities, and these are acts committed by cruel settlers, not Palestinians.” .
Regarding the festival, Zambelli says, “When I came here I realized that remaining silent is like surrender. Therefore, we must speak out, and speak out.” He adds that in Italy over the past two months, he has repeatedly discussed the issue of Palestine “in every possible context,” and the Italian director added, “ We feel helpless when we watch our governments do nothing to confront and stop Israel and its bloody war. I dedicate this award to all the journalists who died trying to document what is happening and who are fighting on the ground to show the truth about this bloody invasion after 75 years of violent occupation.”
dignity
The Karama Festival is the first international film festival for human rights films to be held in Jordan since 2010. It includes screenings of films, visual arts and music, in addition to seminars, forums and art exhibitions. It also awards various prizes to participating films.
The director of the festival speaks of an expanded meeting that this year included journalists, human rights activists, producers, filmmakers, and filmmakers, to discuss mechanisms for commitment to the boycott of Israel movement aimed at isolating the occupation at all levels. “Filmmakers were invited to commit to the cultural boycott necessary to isolate Israeli propaganda,” the director added. Sawsan Darwaza Festival.
Darwaza added, “We looked into systematic working mechanisms to document all aspects of the genocide war on Gaza, as well as all the political, military and media supporting parties that provide cover for this war, in addition to directing filmmakers to a professional industry that documents genocide crimes in cinematic works to contribute to holding this occupation and its supporters accountable.”
The international festival’s handling of events this year was not limited to the camera only, as it was announced that the closing ceremony would be postponed by one day to coincide with the general strike, which took place in Jordan and other countries in solidarity with Gaza, last Monday.
