review

Visions of Palestine: Shorts from the 10th Boston Palestine Film Festival by EMW Bookstore

On October 29-30, the Boston Palestine Film Festival’s 10th Season wrapped up with three striking programs of shorts.  From documentaries on Gaza, to dramas depicting refugee displacement, to sci-fi portrayals of Palestinian futurity, these shorts probe the question of Palestine from a variety of angles, affecting the viewer on multiple registers: ethical, political, intellectual, emotional, philosophical, artistic.  The films make claims to a shared humanity, inviting its New England-based audience to empathize with the Palestinian and/or refugee figure, as well as highlight irreducible difference, cautioning against universalizing identifications.  In the words of the refugee protagonist of “The Way Home” to the well-meaning yet ultimately unhelpful Swedish immigration lawyer: “You don’t know me!  You can’t know what I’ve been through!”  These shorts challenge their viewers to watch and listen with deference and respect to a diversity of Palestinian visions and voices.

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