illegal_cinema #2: Land and Language
Screening of two films + discussion

Mahmoud Darwish: As the Land in the Language
Simone Bitton, Elias Sanbar, France, 1998, 60 min. Arabic with English subtitles
Ma’loul Celebrates its Destruction
Michel Khleifi, Belgium, Palestine, 1984, 30 min. Arabic with English subtitles

Films introduced by Marwa Arsanios and Haytham el-Wardany,
followed by a discussion with the audience,
hosted by fellow Marta Popivoda

Saturday, 14 December 2024, 19.00
Venue: Sinema Transtopia, Lindower Str. 20/22/Haus C, 13347 Berlin
Language: Englisch

We chose these documentary films because, through two different approaches to form, each film materializes the relationship between land, its loss, its lack, and language, and the way it is put to work for both regaining the land through the Palestinian revolutionary struggle or preserving its memory through narration. Here, the memory project is no less revolutionary than as it is mobilized to transmit the loss of land, therefore allowing for the inheritance of its theft.
How are loss and struggle transmitted through Darwish’s poetry? How is memory narrated through Khleifi’s film? These questions will prompt our discussion and help us navigate the intricacies of the Arabic language in its relation to land and revolution.
In his own words, Darwish describes his poetry as a dwelling: „It doesn’t disseminate images and metaphors, but rather landscapes, villages, and fields. I.e. It disseminates a place“.
In the Arabic language, as Darwish observes, there is a rare and beautiful homonymy between the poetic verse and the home. As if a reader of a poem can inhabit a home, which no longer exists.
We will attempt to contextualize this relation between dwelling and language within a wider history of Arabic modern poetry that is inherently tied to a history of social and political anti-colonial struggles. Debates around the form of the poem were not a mere literary discussion, but a contribution to social and political antagonisms. In that sense, we will also touch upon the inseparability of literary production and politics, focusing on the figure of the militant poet in our discussion. (MA + HeW)

Marwa Arsanios is an artist, researcher, and filmmaker from Beirut who lives in Berlin.

Haytham el-Wardany is a writer and translator from Cairo, living and working in Berlin.

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illegal_cinema was conceived in Belgrade in 2007 by filmmaker and artist Marta Popivoda as part of the TkH (Walking Theory) collective. Having had iterations in Zagreb, Istanbul, Paris, and Bilbao, the project always takes a contextual approach, analyzing what is ‚illegal‘ in a specific moment concerning cultural production, dissemination, and public debate. illegal_cinema Berlin is about opening up a public sphere for diverse forms of dissent, contradiction, and commemoration through screenings and discussions. It is an attempt to make the boundaries between „programmer“ and „public“ porous and to generate an ongoing, long-term practice of knowledge production. illegal_cinema Berlin was initiated by Marta Popivoda in the context of her fellowship at the Berlin Artistic Research Programme. It is organized in close conversation with the programme’s team members Rike Frank and Johanna Ekenhorst.

Marta Popivoda is a filmmaker, artist, and researcher. The main concerns in her work are the tensions between memory, history, and ideology, as well as the relations between collective and individual bodies –– approached from a feminist and queer perspective.

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Don’t forget to get your tickets here before they run out!