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Screening will start at 12:00 Noon US EST; 7:00 PM Palestine Time. 24 minutes, English subtitles. The film screening will be followed by a discussion with filmmaker Hisham Zreiq.
SYNOPSIS
He choked and his eyes were full of tears, and with a trembling voice he said “I remember it as if it has just happened”, this is the way he ended the story, the story of a nine years old boy from a small village called Eilaboun (Eilabun), in Palestine 1948, the story of my father, when he was a refugee.
About the Film
It all started on October 30, 1948, when the Israeli army interred his village and massacred 14 young men, one of them was his brother, and some of the others were his cousins, and the villagers were forced to leave their country to Lebanon. This was only the beginning of what he went through, a beginning of a long nightmare. In this nightmare my father witnessed the massacre of about 50 young men, who were convinced to surrender their weapons, and the minute they did, they were murdered in cold blood in front of the people of two villages (their own village, and Eilaboun (عيلبون)). A boy of his age was shot while speaking to him about games, the blood of a woman sitting next to him splashed on his face, when the solders shot her hand, the fear he had…
My father (Salem Zreiq) told us those stories many times before, but this time it was different. This time he was very emotional; he made us live his story, he made us feel what he went through, or at least part of it, for the first time I felt that it happened to my father and indirectly it happened to me!
The Sons Of Eilaboun (أبناء عيلبون) is a documentary film about the massacre, expulsion and return of a small Palestinian village in the Galilee. In the film the Israeli historian Ilan Pappe introduce the history behind the Nakba events. And the Eilaboun (Eilabun) people tell their story.
Film Director
Hisham Zreiq
About the Director
Hisham Zreiq is a Palestinian independent filmmaker, graphics designer, animator and visual artist based in Germany (since 2001). He was born 9 February 1968 in Nazareth, where he grew up and finished school, in 1986 he started his study in computer Sciences, and he started working as a graphic designer and animator in 1991 in the company Adonis, a company he founded with his friends, and produced 3D computer animations and computer graphic (e.g. posters). In 1993 Adonis was terminated. Hisham Zreiq continued doing Animation and graphic design as freelancer, parallel to software development.
In March 2001 Hisham Zreiq moved to live in Germany, and continued working with graphic design neglecting the Animation.
In 2006 Hisham Zreiq started producing/directing films starting with the documentary ‘The Sons of Eilaboun’, that won Al-Awda Award in Palestine, followed by the short fiction film ‘Just another day’ (2009), a film that deals with the Arabs in the western world after September 11 attacks. In 2010/2011 he produced the short fiction ‘Before you is the Sea’, a film about the Middle East peace process in a form of a love story between a Jewish woman and a Palestinian man. In early 2019 he started working on his animated short film Don’t Cry, and because of covid19 he finished the project in February 2022.
FILMOGRAPHY
The Sons of Eilaboun (2007), Short Documentary
Just another day (2009), Short fiction
Before you is the sea (2011), Short fiction
Don’t Cry (2022), Short animated fiction