Mohammad and Jafar: surviving and the hope for return – Film & discussion
Amsterdam: Wednesday 23 May 2018, 20:00 – CREA (Nieuwe Achtergracht 170)
To commemorate 70 years of Nakba, Aidoun, gate48, Palestine Link and the Rights Forum are organizing three screenings of the NTR film Mohammad and Jafar, followed by a discussion with the director and a Palestinian refugee.
This year, the State of Israel celebrates its 70th anniversary. However, Palestinians have no reasons to celebrate. 70 years ago the Nakba took place, the catastrophe, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled the violence of Zionist troops. Since April, every week thousands of people demonstrate in Gaza for their right of return. The Nakba continues today. The refugees of that time and their descendants can still not return to their land. But the hope of return – a right that has been enshrined in international law and recognized by the United Nations – has not subsided after 70 years.
About the film: Mohammad and Jafar (2018, 45 minutes) is a NTR film by director Marcel Goedhart. Goedhart followed the two Palestinian refugees Mohammad and Jafar for 25 years between 1993 and 2018. The documentary tells their personal story that starts in the 1990s when the two are still young. They grow up in Duhaishe refugee camp near Bethlehem in the West Bank. They throw stones at Israeli soldiers who occupy their land. They lose friends who are shot dead by the Israeli occupation army during demonstrations. Mohammad sees his father die before his eyes when he is hit by the bullet of an Israeli sniper in their home. Ultimately, Mohammad and Jafar each choose their own way in life. But their dream remains: going back to Sufla, the village where their grandparents lived until they were expelled by Israeli violence in 1948. The documentary is about friendship, growing up, personal choices and survival in a Palestinian refugee camp. It provides a unique picture of the long-term consequences of the continuous Nakba for two ordinary families and of the dilemmas and choices that are part of Palestinian refugees’ lives.
After the screening there will be ample opportunity to enter into a conversation with Marcel Goedhart, the creator of the documentary and Awni Farhat, refugee from Gaza, living in Jabalia Refugee Camp.
The film is with Dutch subtitles.
The discussion will be in Dutch and English.