Beirut 1931
Fall Grants 2018 - Development Stage
Kamal Aljafari / Feature Narrative / Palestine, Qatar / 2019 / 90 min / Original Language: Arabic / Interests: Drama, Family, Exile
Synopsis
“K.” arrives in his native Jaffa after the disappearance of “M.” Like a lurking shadow, “M.” would only occasionally visit his family home— mostly over weekends—and would sometimes disappear for long periods of time. The visits he pays to hospitals and ministries in search for him prove futile, albeit for the fact that they drive him into a sort of labyrinth inside the Tel Aviv of today. But this is just one illustration of the extent to which the lines between the real and the fictitious are totally blurred. When “K.” finds a trace of “M.” in the background of an Israeli fiction film as he accidentally roams the street behind the shooting locale, the haziness between fiction and reality is accentuated further. Meanwhile, in the streets, “K.” watches a film crew as they prepare a real-time explosion to destroy the last iconic building left in Jaffa.
Credits
- Director
- Kamal Aljafari
- Screenwriter
- Kamal Aljafari
- Producer
- Kamal Aljafari
About the Director
Kamal Aljafari is a Palestinian filmmaker renowned for his distinctive approach to cinema. After studying at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne, he now resides in Berlin, Germany. Aljafari has shared his expertise in filmmaking through teaching positions at The New School in New York and the Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie in Berlin. His contributions to the field were recognised with a fellowship at the Film Study Center Radcliffe at Harvard University. In 2021, the Olhar de Cinema – Curitiba International Film Festival in Brazil highlighted his contributions to cinema by dedicating its Focus Section to his work. Additionally, his installation “The Camera of the Dispossessed” was showcased at the 35th Bienal de São Paulo (2023). His short film ‘UNDR’ made its debut at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) in 2024. Aljafari recently completed ‘A Fidai Film’ and is currently developing a fiction film set to be shot in Jaffa.