A Plate of Sardines (or The First Time I Heard of Israel) by Omar Amiralay (Syria/France, 1997, 18 min). The first time Amiralay heard of Israel, he was in Beirut and the conversation was about a plate of sardines. He was six years old, Israel was two. In the company of filmmaker Mohammad Malas, Omar Amiralay revisits the ruins of the destroyed village of Quneytra. The film has been subtitled in English especially for this program.
The Dream (Al-Manam) by Mohammad Malas (Syria, 1981, 45 min). Filmed in Sabra and Shatila, Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, shortly before the massacre in 1982, this documentary's principle reference is dreams, and not lived reality. It plays on this double register, where women, children, elderly and combatants speak the reality of their everyday, transposed eerily, in dreams, nightmares and premonitions. Ultimately they converge on what the Palestinians have lost: their homeland and a life with dignity.
1997/1982, color, 1 hour 3 minutes, Syria