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ID: 141326

Dream-work of dispossession: the instance of Elia Suleiman / Gourgouris, Stathis

Gourgouris, Stathis	Article
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Summary/Abstract

Essentially a cinema of occupation and dispossession, Palestinian cinema disrupts standard notions of national cinema, complicating conventional expectations of national aesthetics or national dreams. As the borders of Palestine’s historical territory are continuously under erasure, so too are the symbolic boundaries of its language, which is flexible and inventive; the language of Palestinian cinema is a limit-language. No one has expressed this “limit condition” more succinctly than Elia Suleiman, whose cinematic language exemplifies a poetics of dispossession that depicts the asphyxiating spaces and truncated temporalities of Palestinian life with tragic humor and bold fantasy in defiance of narrative simplicity. Suleiman’s films run counter to the conventional representation of Palestinian existence and are arguably the sharpest expressions of what can be deemed to be the dream-work of that existence against its conventional representation.

Key Words

Dispossession ; National Cinema ; Elia Suleiman ; Dream - Work ; Palestinian Cinema ; Palestinian Life

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ID: 147389

Re-writing history on screen: Annemarie Jacir's salt of this sea / Oumlil, Kenza

Oumlil, Kenza	Journal Article
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This article examines how the award winning film Salt of This Sea (2008) responds to dominant gendered representations of Arab and Palestinian identity. The choice of this film is based on its significance as a contemporary cinematic text that aims to present alternative portrayals to those prevalent in the media. Furthermore, Annemarie Jacir is the first Palestinian female filmmaker to make a full-length feature film. The film puts a courageous female character (Soraya—played by Suheir Hammad) at the center of its narrative. It refreshingly departs from inflicting a male gaze on the lead female actor. Salt of This Sea responds to the dominant construction of Arab and Muslim women as passive with the portrayal of a determined heroine. In regard to portrayals of masculinity, the film attempts to challenge the core stereotype of Palestinian men as violent. Overall, the film is part of a movement to re-write a collective history, but it depicts dimensions of Palestinian history that are seldom shown in the mainstream media.

Key Words

Gender ; Masculinity ; Arab Identity ; Femininity ; Palestinian Cinema ; Annemarie Jacir

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