A World Not Ours + Q&A
Dir. Mahdi Fleifel UK / Lebanon / Denmark – 2012 – 93mins
£7 (£5 conc)
Ain el-Helweh is Lebanon’s largest refugee camp, home to over 70,000 displaced Palestinians. In this personal study director Mahdi Fleifel combines his own footage with that of his father’s from the 80s and 90s, to present an intimate portrait of the place where he was born.
After his family emigrated to Denmark Fleifel would return annually to the camp to visit family and friends who had stayed behind. In emulation of these summer trips the director returns to visit as an adult, challenging his teenage belief that ‘going to Ain el-Helweh is better than going to Disney Land’. As when he was young, Fleifel is enamoured by the spirit of passion, volatility and camaraderie in the camp, yet he is forced to realise the harsher realities of entrapment and desperation his childhood friends face.
A bittersweet cinematic essay, A WORLD NOT OURS is a refreshing look at the friendships, laughter, hope and despair that comprise daily life for those living in exile in Lebanon’s refugee camps.
Passionate, ironic, bittersweet…a docu that flips storytelling and Mideast-Arab cliches on their heads – Variety
Producer Patrick Campbell and editor Michael Aaglund will join us for a Q&A.
Best International Film – Edinburgh International Film Festival 2013 Winner Peace Film Prize – Berlin International Film Festival Best Documentary – Guanajuato International Film Festival Best World Cinema Award – Documentary Edge Festival 2013 Grand Prize & Audience Award – FIDADOC 2013
Please note: There will not be adverts or trailers before this screening and the film will start promptly at 8pm.