Land Day

Ghaleb Shaath, Palestine, Japan, 1983, 50′

In Arabic and Japanese, with English subtitles

The original film was shot around the time of the first commemoration of Land Day in 1977, and it documents the different events taking place in Palestinian cities and villages of the Lower Galilee region in occupied Palestine. The remembrance events are used to garner witness accounts to what happened in 1976 during the demonstrations against the continuous land grab of Palestinian land. Other interviews with mayors and heads of local councils provide context and a history of Land Day. The screened version is the Japanese adaption of the original “Land Day”, produced six years later with additional historical context of the Palestinian struggle and Land Day itself.

Ghaleb Shaath, born in 1935 in Jerusalem, and immigrated with his family to Gaza following the Nakba in 1948. Shaath studied architecture at Cairo University, before working for some time in Saudi Arabia, then obtaining a diploma in engineering from Vienna in 1963 and a diploma in directing from the Film Institute in Vienna in 1967. Shaath became acquainted with the Fatah movement in Europe and affiliated with it. Shaath’s only feature film, “Shadows on the Other Side”, 1974, was initially banned by censorship. In the ’70s, Shaath founded the “New Cinema Group” with a group of Egyptian directors. Also contributed to the establishment of the Palestinian cinema stream in Lebanon with the Samed Foundation. He died in Cairo in 2022.

Venue: UA S Building, Lange Sint Annastraat 7, 2000, Antwerpen.