Art_Africa_2016_03_

ARTAFRICA

FEATURE / CARTHAGE FILM FESTIVAL

CARTHAGE FILM FESTIVAL / IN CONVERSATION WITH MUAYAD ALAYAN 11/20

ART AFRICA: Please tell us a bit about yourself and your film Love, Theft and other

Entanglements? What is it that brought you into the world of cinema and has kept you

here ever since?

Muayad Alayan: I grew up in occupied Jerusalem, surrounded by armies and militaries. The

situation is very tense and very sad. A beautiful city, but very depressing because of the occupation.

I grew up at a time when graffiti was forbidden. You’d be taken to jail for political activism. I

grew up at a time when putting the colours of the Palestinian flag together was illegal. If you

aligned your clothes next to each other in a certain way you would go to jail. As a result I grew

up frustrated and angry. We were all trying to find a way to express ourselves, to say something.

It was scary for me to express my opinion, to get my story to the world. I became very aware

of the importance of the image, the importance of reaching out to the world and telling our

version of the story. In general, we Palestinians have a feeling that we are constantly loosing to

the media game.

That’s how I started, by filming and documenting my family’s oral history; the story of my

grandmother and how she was expelled from her house in 1948, of how my grandfather’s

butchery had become an Israeli bank. The importance of documenting these stories was the

first experience I had with the camera.

I’m here in Carthage with my first feature film Love, Theft and other Entanglements. The film premiered

earlier this year at the Berlinale and has been touring since. This is our North African Premiere.

Muayad Alayan, stills from Love, Theft and other Entanglements, 2015. Sound: Costas Fylaktidis. Edit: Sameer Qumsiyeh.

Production: PalCine Productions. Distribution: MAD Solutions. Duration: 93 minutes. All images courtesy of PalCine Productions.