by Virginia Marcolini, Francesca Marchesini and in collaboration with Stefania Cherchi (Women in Black)
Concorto Film Festival proposes a free and independent space to all Palestinian directors. In a context of endemic violence and systemic oppression, we feel it is urgent to provide a space for expression and self-representation for these communities. Free from every claim of exhaustiveness, the focus aims to point the limelight on the nooks and crannies of everyday life, glimpsing without squeezing singularities into a uniquely perceived experience, and at the same time not reducing itself to the binary and simplistic victim-offender narrative. Palestine is a land that fights and resists. In addition to giving a voice to existences burdened by decades of war, apartheid and ethnic cleansing, we thus feel it is our duty to also portray those personal and intimate moments of multifaceted human experience. Therefore, the selected shorts move on several levels, crossing multiform languages and providing snapshots of a reality whose complexity is as fleeting as it is tangible
The focus was realized in collaboration with Women in Black, an international network of women founded in Israel in 1988 to protest against the occupation of Palestinian territories. Committed to peace and non-violent practices, they actively oppose injustice, war, militarism, and other forms of violence.
Films featured:
A’lam (Flag), Saadi Saleh, Palestine, 2021
Bethlehem 2001, Handal Ibrahim, Palestine, 2020
In the Waiting Room, Taha Moatasem, Palestine, 2023
Lovesick in the West Bank, Zagha Said, Palestine and Jordan, 2020
Palestine 87 di Alkhatib Bilal, Palestine, 2022
