LITTLE PALESTINE, DIARY OF A SIEGE
Abdallah Al-Khatib | Lebanon, France, Qatar 2021 | 89 Min. | OmeU
13.05. | 9:30pm
Votiv Kino, Gr. Saal | TICKETS
In presence of Abdallah Al-Khatib
From 2013 to 2015, soldiers of the Assad regime besieged Yarmuk, a district of Damascus inhabited by Palestinian refugees since 1948. After fights between the Free Syrian Army and Assad’s troops, the destroyed neighbourhood and the remaining population are left to their fate. The lack of medical facilities and the worsening water and food shortages are making the situation even more difficult.
Abdallah Al-Khatib is a resident of Yarmuk. For four years he has filmed the daily life of the siege. With the harrowing cinematic diary LITTLE PALESTINE, he composes a love song to a place that resists the almost unbearable atrocities of war with dignity and humanity.
Director: Abdallah Al-Khatib
Camera: Abdallah Al-Khatib
Editing: Qutaiba Barhamji
Sound: Pierre Armand
Color Grading: Michael Derrosset
Production: Mohammad Ali Atassi, Jean-Laurent Csinidis, Bidayyat for Audiovisual Arts, Films de Force Majeure
AWARDS
Interreligious Award, Visions du Réel 2021
Documentary Grand Prize and the Student Prize at Festival 2 Cinéma de Valenciennes 2021
Special Jury Mention, International Feature Documentary competition, GuanajuatoInternational Film Festival 2021
Press Jury Award at War on Screen Film Festival 2021
Commerzbank Audience Award at Filmfest Hamburg 2021
Best Film at Documentary Competition at IFFI – International Film Festival Innsbruck 2021
Special Mention at the Subversive Festival 2021
Best Film at the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival 2021
Jury Prize in the International Competition at Festival de Cinéma En ville!
Impact Audience Award at Vancouver International Film Festival 2021
Honorable Jury Mention at Mostra – São Paulo IFF 2021
Prix TV 5 Monde at Carthage Film Festival 2021
Palestinian Sunbird Award for Best Documentary at Palestine Cinema Days 2021
Bader Best Feature Film Award at Ajyal Film Festival 2021
Gli Occhiali di Gandhi Award at Torino Film Festival 2021
Special Jury Mention in Ópera Prima competition at MiradasDoc 2022
First ever Arab Film Days Award at Arab Film Days Festival Oslo 2022
Feature Film Audience Award at International Film Festival Ottawa 2022
Best Documentary Film at Thin Line Festival 2022
SCREENINGS
2021 Visions du Réel
2021 ACID Cannes
2021 Dokufest
2021 Syrian Doc Days, Denmark (Danish Premiere)
2021 Guanajuato International Film Festival
2021 Filmfest Hamburg
2021 Vancouver International Film Festival (North American Premiere)
2021 International Film Festival Innsbruck (Austrian Premiere)
2021 BFI London (UK Premiere)
2021 Festival de Cinéma En ville! (Belgium Premiere)
2021 Yamagata IDFF
2021 FIFIB – Festival International du Film Indépendant de Bordeaux
2021 West Lake IDF (Chinese Premiere)
2021 Mostra – São Paulo IFF
2021 MIDBO International Documentary Film Festival Bogotá
2021 Carthage Film Festival
2021 Palestine Cinema Days
2021 Cork Film Festival
2021 Ajyal Film Festival (MENA Premiere)
2021 RIDM (Canadian Premiere)
2021 IDFA (Dutch Premiere)
2021 Movies on War
2021 London Palestine Film Festival
2021 Torino Film Festival
2021 CINEMAMED Festival du cinéma méditerranéen
2022 ReFrame Film Festival
2022 Reel Palestine Film Festival
2022 Festival Rabat
2022 Santa Barbara IFF
2022 MiradasDoc
2022 International Film Festival Ottawa
2022 Arab Film Days Oslo (Norwegian premiere)
2022 Thin Line Festival
2022 Sofia International Film Festival – Cinema Politica
2022 Istanbul Film Festival (Turkish Premiere)
BIOGRAPHY
Abdallah Al-Khatib was born in 1989 in Yarmouk. He studied sociology at the University of Damascus. Before the revolution he worked for the UN as coordinator of activities and volunteers. He created the humanitarian aid association Wataad with several friends which carried out dozens of projects in several regions of Syria, and in particular in Yarmouk. He participated in several documentary films relating the life of the Yarmouk camp, notably being one of the cameramen of 194. Us Children of the Camp which premiered at Visions du Réel in 2017. The German magazine Peace Green identified him as one of the 2014 “peacemakers». In Sweden, he received the Per Anger Human Rights Award in 2016. Abdallah currently lives in Germany, where he was recently granted refugee status
