The Palestinian Experience: Documented and Portrayed

On this episode, we're looking at two cinematic exampoles of the Palestinian expereince. One documentary and one fictionalized portrayal. The documentary, Gaza Ghetto: Portrait of a Palestinian Family (1985), captures exactly what the title implies. We get the lived experiences from grandmother down to grandchildren as they recount their experiences ranging from the 1948 exile to the 1967 war to the 1971 "pacification campaign".  The fiction film is the very poorly titled, The Dupes (1973). It's an adaptation of Ghassan Kanafani's acclaimed book, Men in the Sun (1963). In this portrayal, three Palestinian men of different generations and and backgounds employ a fourth man to drive them past Iraqi checkpoints in hopes of getting to Kuwait and (hopefully) jobs. It's a fantastic example of realist cinema from Tawfiq Saleh, one of Egypts best filmmakers. Links to things mentioned on the show: The Accented Cinema book that Aaron discussed. Solidarity Cinema Palestine Film Institute. Follow us at: Patreon / Twitter / Instagram / Letterboxd / Facebook