Cynthia Zaven performs the Beirut debut of ‘Palestine – A Revised Narrative’ at Metropolis Cinema, Jan 20, 2025. (Photo © Halima Loutfi)
BEIRUT — “The purpose was to show that Palestine was indeed inhabited in 1914,” says composer Cynthia Zaven, “that there were Muslims and Christians and Jews there, that it’s not a sin to coexist. The footage shows them together — in Bethlehem, at Al Aqsa Mosque, at the Western Wall.”“In April 2024, this project was very urgent to us,” says sound designer Rana Eid. “We didn’t know then that the war would continue for [over] two years. It was necessary to point out that Palestine’s story didn’t start on October 7 [2023] ... Now, I think only traces of Palestine remain, so this work has another meaning.”In 2023, AlFilm, Berlin’s festival of Arabic-language cinema, acquired access to a trove of 77 35mm reels from the UK’s Imperial War Museum. Shot during WWI (1914-1918), these clips document British forces’ invasion of then-Ottoman...
BEIRUT — “The purpose was to show that Palestine was indeed inhabited in 1914,” says composer Cynthia Zaven, “that there were Muslims and Christians and Jews there, that it’s not a sin to coexist. The footage shows them together — in Bethlehem, at Al Aqsa Mosque, at the Western Wall.”“In April 2024, this project was very urgent to us,” says sound designer Rana Eid. “We didn’t know then that the war would continue for [over] two years. It was necessary to point out that Palestine’s story didn’t start on October 7 [2023] ... Now, I think only traces of Palestine remain, so this work has another meaning.”In 2023, AlFilm, Berlin’s festival of Arabic-language cinema, acquired access to a trove of 77 35mm reels from the UK’s Imperial War Museum. Shot during WWI (1914-1918), these clips document British forces’...