Plots(1)
On the screen, we see another screen, and that's it. Gradually it starts filling up: first a tree, a sweet memory of a life with olive oil the color of gold. Then rough sketches appear on the white surface. The first tent of the Aida refugee camp was put up by the family of Sabha Kader Abusrour in 1956. As she tells about this camp near Bethlehem, her voice is as angry as her drawing is childlike. This is the place that thousands of uprooted Palestinians now call home. They have lost everything. We don't see them, but only hear their voices and the sound of the felt-tip pen they are using in an attempt to draw their existence. The second drawing depicts a map of the camp's surroundings, as experienced by Mahmoud Issa. He braved the barbwire and the patrols for a romantic excursion to see a girl on the other side of the border. But his trip to Barsheeba resulted in a meeting that was very different from the one he had expected. Nearby the checkpoint, an Israeli soldier shot at him and missed. The two young men talked to one another for hours, there in no man's land, unseen and momentarily free from the weight of history. Videomappings: Aida, Palestine consists of six chapters, of which the stories of Abusrour and Issa are screened at IDFA. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)
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