Larissa Sansour’s work explores the complexities of life in Palestine by drawing on pop culture and film through subversions of Western narratives. Sansour searches for innovative ways to revive contemporary Palestine, offering an otherworldly reflection on the the day-to-day life there.
In the Future they Ate from the Finest Porcelain
Larissa Sansour and Søren Lind, 2016, 28’
Arabic with English subtitles
A narrative resistance group makes underground deposits of elaborate porcelain – suggested to belong to an entirely fictional civilisation. Their aim is to influence history and support future claims to their vanishing lands. Once unearthed, this tableware will prove the existence of this counterfeit people. By implementing a myth of its own, their work becomes a historical intervention – de facto creating a nation.
As if No Misfortune Had Occurred in the Night
Larissa Sansour and Søren Lind, 2020, 20′
Arabic with English Subtitles
A Palestinian mother mourns the loss of her daughter and the eternal succession of traumas passed on to future generations. Her song fuses Palestinian and European musical practices: Al Ouf Mash’al is an ever-evolving reflection of the Palestinian experience; its lyrics tell of disaster, exodus, and displacement. This is blended with an Arabic modification of Gustav Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder an outpouring of sorrow after losing one’s child.
In Vitro
Larissa Sansour and Søren Lind, 2019, 28′
Arabic with English subtitles
Set in Bethlehem, decades after an ecological-disaster. The dying founder of a subterranean orchard engages in a dialogue with her young successor, who was born underground and has never seen the town she’s destined to replant and repopulate. Starring Hiam Abbas.
This event is part of In Songs and Scenes from Palestine,
In Songs and Scenes from Palestine, we get to view the history and cultural identity of the Palestinian people through their own lens. In this programme, Palestinian artists and filmmakers allow us to share in their culture and their stories. They watch and listen attentively to the personal stories of resilient Palestinians seeking contact with the place where their families lived, cried, sang, dreamed and loved for generations. The selection is made up of recent, powerful documentaries and artist films that shine a new light on archival footage, and in which the relationship between landscape, culture and identity plays a major role.
More infos: https://www.eyefilm.nl/en/programme/songs-and-scenes-from-palestine/1249657