This screening is part of: POLITICS OF THE IMAGE: COLLABORATIONS BETWEEN THE PALESTINIAN LIBERATION MOVEMENT AND THE TWO GERMANIES
After completing his studies at the GDR’s Deutsche Hochschule für Filmkunst (German Academy of Film Art, now the Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF) in 1967, Iraqi Kais al-Zubaidi worked for the Syrian Broadcasting Corporation, which was in close exchange with the East German DEFA film studios. AWAY FROM HOME (1969) is al-Zubaidi’s first film about the “Palestinian issue”. It marks his transition to work with the PLO’s Department for Culture and Information, for which he served as film delegate for almost 20 years. Palestinian Mahmoud Khalil began his studies at the same school in 1976. His diploma film, HEYDA MOURAD, I AM NOT A DREAMER (1982), is a portrait of a Palestinian woman – heavily injured in an explosion in Beirut – who receives medical treatment and vocational rehabilitation in the GDR.
Kais al-Zubaidi
AWAY FROM HOME
1969, 11 min, 16mm-to-DCP. In Arabic with English subtitles.
Mahmoud Khalil
HEIDIA MOURAD – I AM NOT A DREAMER
1982, 40 min, 16mm-to-DCP. In German with English subtitles.
Total running time: ca. 55 min.