Within the framework of its ‘Falastin al Hadara’ program, Darat al Funun presents a number of exhibitions that look at both pioneering and contemporary art in Palestine.

Darat al Funun is proud to present the first viewing in the Arab world of Samira Badran’s new animated movie Memory of the Land (2017), together with a selection of pre-production sketches, photographs, and video scenes. Memory of the Land presents an artistic and distressing vision of the human condition under the yoke of different forms of violence, and of collective memory and identity as forms of resilience.

Set in Palestine, the film follows the journey of the main character trapped at a checkpoint - an essential mechanism of the Israeli occupation - looking for a way out of reality, while its body is pierced by structural and physical violence, aggressive and arbitrary, preventing free movement and attacking its existence.

Mirroring and complementing the diversity of artistic techniques used by Badran (acrylic paint on paper, collage, ink drawing, pencil drawing, manual interventions on photography, and various animation techniques), sound and language play an important role in the film’s narrative. It is used poetically as a tool for dialogue and reflection on the one hand, while the checkpoint military orders are represented by an invented language expressing aggressive sounds of violence.

Memory of the Land (2017), 12’50”
Director and art direction: Samira Badran.
Screenplay by Samira Badran and Oriol Martin Gual.
Co-produced by Jaume Serra.
Director of animation, editing, and post-production by Oriol Martin Gual.
3D animation by Pol Cayuela Rull and Àlex Guitart.
Sound design by Lucas Ariel Vallejos.
Poem by Mireia Calafell.
Invented language created and performed by Yolanda Cañardo.