This is a Hybrid Event, meaning you can attend virtually via Zoom or, in-person at the Palestine Museum US, 1764 Litchfield Turnpike, Woodbridge, Connecticut, USA. The program begins at 12:00 PM US EDT; 18:00 Europe; 19:00 Palestine Time. Film running time 25 minute, German and English with subtitles. The screening will be followed with post-screening Q&A discussion with film director Nahed Awwad and Berlin-based lawyer Nadija Samour.
About the Film
Berlin-based lawyer Nadija Samour and her colleagues fight against the suppression of Palestinian voices in Germany.
Throughout 2023, they have defended constitutional rights in the face of growing prejudicial policies and bans on all things Palestinian.
Since October 7, 2023, authorities have further clamped down on Palestinian activism in Berlin but Nadija will not give up her struggle for Palestinians.
Nahed Awwad is a Palestinian independent filmmaker and a film curator based in Berlin. She has been working in Film and Television since 1997. Awwad was professionally trained in Canada, Qatar, and Belgium. In 2004 she got her film diploma from the European film college in Denmark and has since released eight films, among them “25 km”, “Going for Ride?”, “5 Minutes from Home”, and “Gaza Calling”, Palestine:Banned in Berlin; all were meticulously researched. The ethos of Awwad’s filmmaking is to provide intimate access to the characters featured in her films. Audiences feel they know – and understand – the protagonists.
Artistic Statement: I grew up in a country that has been controlled by foreign military and where one's identity and existence is questioned on a daily basis. The circumstances are subject to unforeseeable, dramatic changes from one day to the other. Your normal way to school or work is cut off by pop-up checkpoints or by the construction of an eight meter high wall. For over 20 years now, I have been instinctively driven to collect and preserve the memory of the people and the landscape of my homeland. This urge to protect memory is the reason for me making films.
Today, memory and archive became the leitmotif of my work. For example, in my film “5 Minutes from Home” about the Jerusalem Airport, I was not only able to revive the memory of a forgotten place, but also assemble material from private collections to build an archive that did not exist in the public domain.
Nadija Samour works as a criminal defense lawyer with a focus on political criminal proceedings and international criminal law. She previously studied at the Irish Center for Human Rights and worked at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. She has been involved in the Palestinian community in Berlin and Germany for over 15 years. Anti-racism and anti-colonialism, criticism of the police and prisons, and the cross-community struggle for liberation play a central role in her political practice.