Bye Bye Tiberias
Lina Soualem, 2023, 82”
In French, Arabic, with English subtitles
Hiam Abbass left her native Palestinian village of Deir Hanna in Galilee to follow her dream of becoming an actress in Europe, leaving behind her mother, grandmother and seven sisters. But she returned to her village every summer, together with Lina, the daughter she gave birth to in Paris, and all their trips were tenderly filmed.
Lina is now in her thirties. Camera in hand, she reassesses the bold choices her mother made, and also explores the personal journey of several other female family members, whose stories connect with different periods in history. This inevitably leads to the fateful year of 1948, which is inextricably bound up with the lives of the women.
By reconstructing the past through personal videos and black-and-white archive footage, Lina Soualem pieces together a story of determination and resistance that spans different generations and territories. Although she is the first of these women who was not born in Palestine, she feels part of this powerful female lineage.
Lina Soualem is a French-Palestinian-Algerian filmmaker and actress, born and based in Paris. After studying History and Political Science at La Sorbonne University, Lina worked as a programmer for the International Human Rights Film Festival in Buenos Aires. Lina’s debut feature documentary Their Algeria premiered in Visions du Réel International Film Festival 2020. Their Algeria received more than a dozen awards, such as the First Film award in CINEMED, the Best Arab Documentary award in El Gouna Film Festival, and the Best Documentary Award at Cinemania Film Festival 2021. Lina acted in three feature films directed by Hafsia Herzi, Hiam Abbass and Rayhana. In 2020, she worked as a researcher and writing coordinator on the series OUSSEKINE (Disney+). Her second feature length documentary, Bye Bye Tiberias premiered in 2023 at The 80th Venice International Film Festival, then got selected at TIFF, BFI London Film Festival, Chicago International Film Festival, IDFA, DOC NYC, RIDM, Palm Springs & more. The film received several awards such as the Best Documentary Award at the BFI and the Jury Prize at the Marrakech International Film Festival. Bye Bye Tiberias was chosen to represent Palestine at the Oscars 2024 and was nominated in the Best Documentary category at the 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards.
The screening will be followed by a discussion with LABO VZW and Dr. Sigrid Vertommen.
More infos: https://sphinx-cinema.be/programma/film/bye-bye-tiberias