Falastin Film Festival, Film

Performing Archaeology

Falastin Film Festival 2025

(Sat 17 May: 9pm)

A compelling screening of four short films that delve into the manipulation of archaeological heritage and erasure of folkloric traditions by the occupying zionist entity, revealing the cultural destruction of colonial control. This event features a post-screening conversation with Nadia Dina Yahlom.

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She Still Wears Kohl and Smells Like Roses (Dima Srouji)
The story of a collection of glass vessels excavated in Palestine and Syria, now part of the collection at the V&A.

Genre: Short, Experimental | Year of Release: 2023 | Original Language: Arabic | Subtitles: English

Performing Archeology (Dima Srouji)
The Israeli government encourages illegal settlers carrying weapons to enter Sebastia for mass religious tourism, using archaeological monuments as a stage set to perform the singular narratives of Ancient Samaria. But what if the ground could speak for itself?

Genre: Short, Experimental | Year of Release: 2019 | Original Languages: Arabic, English | Subtitles: English

Sebastia سبسطية (Dima Srouji)
A small town sits on top of a hill surrounded by an illegal Israeli settlement and confiscated olive groves. This ancient site was excavated multiple times over the last century by colonial archaeologists using locals as cheap labour - digging their own land for the sake of biblical archaeology.

Genre: Short, Experimental, Historical | Year of Release: 2020 | Original Language: Arabic | Subtitles: English

our songs were ready for all wars to come أعددنا الأغاني للحروب القادمة (Noor Abed)
Choreographed scenes based on documented folktales from Palestine, the film aims to create a new aesthetic form to re-awaken latent stories based around water wells and their connection to communal rituals around notions of disappearance, mourning, and death.

Genre: Short, Experimental | Year of Release: 2021 | Original Language: Arabic | Subtitles: English

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Nadia Dima Yahlom is a Palestinian-Jewish and British artist, curator and researcher working with speculative fiction, film, photography, drawing and objects. She co-founded Sarha Collective, a platform for experimental art forms from Palestine and the broader SWANA region. Her practice explores ways of sensing beyond seeing, the bio/necropolitical between Palestine and the UK and how humans, artefacts and landscapes bear witness to colonial violence. She has worked with Battersea Arts Centre, British Council (Yemen), Rich Mix, ICA, Open City Docs, Tate Britain, Southbank Centre and many others.

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Falastin Film Festival (FFF) is a volunteer-run, not-for-profit collective of Palestinians and allies dedicated to bringing Palestinian art to Edinburgh and Highland audiences. Palestinians are often summed up as an ‘occupied people,’ and spoken for, though they have their own stories to tell. Using cinema as a tool of resistance the festival strives to decolonize the narrative and equip audiences with historical context. There is a desire to build community while celebrating Palestinian art and culture through cinema, music, cuisine, and other storytelling mediums. Scotland’s exposure to Palestinian society, art, culture, and humanity altogether remains rather limited. FFF hopes to fill this gap, using both classical and contemporary cinema primarily but not exclusively. They strive to highlight Palestinian steadfast resistance, cultural preservation, stories of love, and in the words of poet Rafeef Ziadah, teachings of life. In so doing, they offer a refreshing portrayal that encompasses the geographic, linguistic, and experiential diversity of the Palestinian people globally.

Visit their website falastinfilmfest.com or follow them on social media @falastinfilmfest.

• Film
• £10.00
• 17 May 2025
• 90 minutes
• 21:00
• Scottish Storytelling Centre
• Netherbow Theatre
• PG
• 
  Cultural appropriation, historical violence, colonialism, land appropriation, loss and mourning